The sensitivity of carboxyl-terminal methionines in calmodulin isoforms to oxidation by H(2)O(2) modulates the ability to activate the plasma membrane Ca-ATPase.

The oxidative modification of methionines within the primary sequence of calmodulin (CaM) results in an inability to activate the PM-Ca-ATPase fully, and may contribute to alterations in calcium homeostasis under conditions of oxidative stress. To identify differences in the sensitivities of CaM isoforms to oxidative modification, we have compared the function and patterns of oxidative modification resulting from the exposure of CaM isolated from bovine testes and wheat germ to H(2)O(2). In comparison to CaM isolated from wheat germ, vertebrate CaM is functionally resistant to oxidant-induced loss of function. The decreased functional sensitivity of vertebrate CaM correlates with a 75 +/- 3% reduction in the rate of oxidative modification of a methionine near the carboxyl terminus (i.e., Met(144) or Met(145)). The extent of oxidative modification to other methionines in these CaM isoforms is similar. These results suggest that the sensitivity of Met(144) or Met(145) to oxidation modulates the ability of CaM to activate the PM-Ca-ATPase. Consistent with this interpretation, a CaM mutant in which glutamines were substituted for Met(144) and Met(145) fully activates the PM-Ca-ATPase irrespective of the oxidative modification of the other seven methionines to their corresponding methionine sulfoxides. The extent of oxidative modification to individual methionines in vertebrate CaM by H(2)O(2) correlates with the time-averaged surface accessibility of individual sulfurs calculated from molecular dynamics simulations. Thus, the sensitivity of individual methionines to oxidative modification is directly related to the solvent accessibility. These results indicate that sequence differences between vertebrate and plant CaM alter the sensitivity of methionines near the carboxyl terminus to oxidative modification because of alterations in their solvent accessibility. We suggest that these sequence differences between CaM isoforms have a regulatory role in modulating the functional sensitivity of CaM to conditions of oxidative stress.