Enzymatic activities, activation by actin, and synthesis of cardiac atrial myosin: distinctive enzymatic properties compared with cardiac ventricular myosin.

ATPase activity and synthesis of atrial and ventricular myosin were compared in the dog and rabbit heart. Atrial myosin showed enzymatic properties characterized by high Ca2+- and Mg2+-activated ATPase activities, low activation energy, lower rate of inactivation at alkaline pH, and no activation by N-ethylmalemide compared with the same properties in ventricular myosin. These findings suggest a difference in the myosin molecule at or near the active site involfing the SH-1 thiols. Also, actin activation of ATPase activities was studied to determine the physiological significance of this observation, since, in living muscle cell, MgATP is hydrolyzed by myosin under the activating effect of actin. Actin extracted from skeletal muscle was used in this experiment. Vmax for the actin-activated Mg2+-ATPase of atrial myosin was about twice that of ventricular myosin, whereas no significant difference was observed in the apparent dissociation constant for actin. This result suggests that the change in the enzymatic properties of myosin is reflected in the contractility of atrial and ventricular muscles. However, [3H]leucine incorporation into the myosin was approximately the same, suggesting that the difference in work load between atrium and ventricle is not associated with alteration of synthesis of cardiac myosin.