The steady state intermediate of scallop smooth muscle myosin ATPase and effect of light chain phosphorylation. A molecular mechanism for catch contraction.

The ATP-induced difference UV-absorption spectrum of myosin isolated from the opaque portion of scallop smooth muscle (opaque myosin) was Ca2+-sensitive at 40 mM KCl and 1.5 M sucrose. On adding sucrose to 1.5 M, the turbidity of myosin decreased to 24% and the characteristic two forms of the difference spectrum, the ATP-form and ADP-form (Morita, F. (1967) J. Biol. Chem. 242, 4501-4506), were distinguishable. In the presence of Ca2+, the difference spectrum was the ATP-form first and then decayed into the ADP-form with the depletion of ATP. In the absence of Ca2+, however, only the ADP-form was observed. The ADP-form observed in the absence of Ca2+ returned to the ATP-form when the regulatory light chain-a (RLC-a), one of the regulatory light chains of opaque myosin, was phosphorylated. These results suggest that the main intermediate at the steady state of opaque myosin ATPase is converted depending on the concentration of Ca2+, from EPADP in the presence of Ca2+ to EADP in the absence of Ca2+. It changes to EPADP in the absence of Ca2+ on the phosphorylation of RLC-a. Consistent results were obtained by measuring the ATP-induced Trp-fluorescence increase of opaque myosin in the absence of sucrose. Since the opaque portion of scallop smooth muscle is known to be responsible for catch contraction (Ruegg, J.C. (1961) Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. B 154, 224-249), these findings lead us to suppose that the opaque myosin in vivo may stay in the E.ADP complex during the catch state. It changes to EPADP by the phosphorylation of RLC-a, which may terminate the catch state.