Calcium binding to untreated and dephosphorylated porcine neurofilaments.

The calcium-binding properties of untreated and in vitro dephosphorylated neurofilaments were determined by partition centrifugation. Scatchard plot analysis of the binding data indicated that each type of neurofilament contained both high and low affinity calcium-binding sites. The number of calcium-binding sites per unit consisting of three 140,000, three 107,000 and eight 62,000 molecular weight subunits was 4 sites with Kd = 4.1 microM and 126 sites with Kd = 293 microM for untreated neurofilaments. The in vitro dephosphorylated neurofilaments contained 8 sites with Kd = 15 microM and 54 sites with Kd = 332 microM, per unit.