Roles for the troponin tail domain in thin filament assembly and regulation. A deletional study of cardiac troponin T.

Striated muscle contraction is regulated by Ca2+ binding to troponin, which has a globular domain and an elongated tail attributable to the NH2-terminal portion of the bovine cardiac troponin T (TnT) subunit. Truncation of the bovine cardiac troponin tail was investigated using recombinant TnT fragments and subunits TnI and TnC. Progressive truncation of the troponin tail caused progressively weaker binding of troponin-tropomyosin to actin and of troponin to actin-tropomyosin. A sharp drop-off in affinity occurred with NH2-terminal deletion of 119 rather than 94 residues. Deletion of 94 residues had no effect on Ca2+-activation of the myosin subfragment 1-thin filament MgATPase rate and did not eliminate cooperative effects of Ca2+ binding. Troponin tail peptide TnT1-153 strongly promoted tropomyosin binding to actin in the absence of TnI or TnC. The results show that the anchoring function of the troponin tail involves interactions with actin as well as with tropomyosin and has comparable importance in the presence or absence of Ca2+. Residues 95-153 are particularly important for anchoring, and residues 95-119 are crucial for function or local folding. Because striated muscle regulation involves switching among the conformational states of the thin filament, regulatory significance for the troponin tail may arise from its prominent contribution to the protein-protein interactions within these conformations.