Cytoplasmic dynein of the sea urchin egg. II. Purification, characterization and interactions with microtubules and Ca-calmodulin.

Purification of cytoplasmic dynein from unfertilized sea urchin eggs was performed in the presence of protease inhibitors to avoid proteolysis throughout the purification procedure, which comprised several chromatographies, including a calmodulin-Sepharose 4B affinity column chromatography. This is the first report of the purification of cytoplasmic dynein to near homogeneity. The purified fraction was composed of a single high molecular weight polypeptide and some minor low molecular weight polypeptides. The high molecular weight polypeptide comigrated with flagellar dynein A beta chain from sperm on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. There was no polypeptide stainable with periodic acid-Schiff reagent (PAS) in the purified cytoplasmic dynein fraction. Cytoplasmic dynein showed characteristics quite similar to those of axonemal dynein, i.e. high substrate specificity for ATP and inhibition by low concentrations of vanadate, though its Ca-ATPase activity showed almost the same dependence on the concentration of either divalent cations or KC1 as the Mg-ATPase activity. The purified enzyme seemed to possess functional form as judged from its properties: 1) pH dependence of the ATPase activity, 2) dependence of the ATPase activity on MgCl2 and KCl concentration, 3) Km for Mg-ATP, and 4) binding to flagellar doublet microtubules. Cytoplasmic dynein bound to calmodulin-Sepharose 4B only in the presence of Ca2+, and was eluted with EGTA. Furthermore, the ATPase activity was enhanced 6-fold by calmodulin in a Ca2+-dependent manner. The activation by calmodulin was prevented by a stoichiometric amount of trifluoperazine.