[High sensitivity to Ca2 ions of the conformational changes of F-actin, induced by the myosin 1 subfragment].

The effects of Ca2+ on conformational changes of ghost muscle fiber F-actin induced by binding of isolated rabbit skeletal muscle myosin heads (myosin subfragment 1, S1) were investigated. The changes in F-actin induced by binding of S1 to F-actin were followed by the changes in polarized tryptophan fluorescence of F-actin. It was found that the conformational changes in F-actin during the binding of S1 free of DTNB-light chains are insensitive to the changes in Ca2+ concentration. The binding of native S1 containing native DTNB-light chains induces Ca2+-sensitive conformational changes in F-actin. These changes are observed at Ca2+ concentrations of 10(-7)-10(-6) M. Such high sensitivity to Ca2+ exceeds that of S1 containing native DTNB-light chains. It was assumed that the Ca2+-sensitive conformational changes in F-actin induced by myosin head binding reflect the structural changes in thin actin filaments. These changes seem to occur in muscle fibers during the initiation and development of contraction and may be related to the control of vertebrate skeletal muscle contraction by Ca2+.