Calcium translocation mechanism in sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles, deduced from location studies of protein-bound spin labels.

Sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles were exposed to various thiol-directed spin labels, and the position of the label on the inner or outer vesicle surface was investigated as a function of the ATPase (adenosinetriphosphatase; ATP phosphohydrolase, EC 3.6.1.3) chemical state. Previous measurements of label accessibility to externally added ascorbate had been considered to suggest an external-internal transition of protein-bound labels, coupled with ion translocation [Tonomura, Y. & Morales, M.F. (1974) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 71, 3687-3691]. We show that these ascorbate studies do not lead to convincing conclusions. We demonstrate, on the contrary, that transition ions (nickel and ferricyanide) can be used as selective line-broadening agents for the signals arising from external labels. No significant difference in nickel- or ferricyanide-label interaction can be attributed to a different orientation of the label in any of the enzyme chemical states tested. Our results therefore contradict the current interpretation of ascorbate quenching experiments in terms of calcium ATPase rotatory motion; rather they are consistent with ion transport models involving only limited conformational rearrangements of the pump.