The magnesium-ion-dependent adenosine triphosphatase of bovine cardiac Myosin and its subfragment-1.

The kinetics of the Mg2+-dependent ATPase (adenosine triphosphatase) activity of bovine cardiac myosin and its papain subfragment-1 were studied by using steady-state and pre-steady-state techniques, and results were compared with published values for the corresponding processes in the ATPase mechanism of rabbit skeletal-muscle myosin subfragment-1. The catalytic-centreactivity for cardiac subfragment-1 is 0.019s-1, which is less than one-third of that determined for the rabbit protein. The ATP-induced isomerization process, measured from enhancement of protein fluorescence on substrate binding, is similarly decreased in rate, as is also the isomerization process associated with ADP release. However, the equilibrium constant for ATP cleavage, measured by quenched-flow by using [gamma-32P]ATP, shows little difference in the two species. Other experiments were carried out to investigate the rate of association of actin with subfragment-1 by light-scattering changes and also the rate of dissociation of the complex by ATP. The dissociation rate increases with increasing substrate concentration, to a maximum at high ATP concentrations, with a rate constant of about 2000s-1. It appears that isomerization processes which may involve conformational changes have substantially lower rate constants for the cardiac proteins, whereas equilibrium constants for substrate binding and cleavage are not significantly different. These differences may be related to the functional properties of these myosins in their different muscle types. Kinetic heterogeneity has been detected in both steady-state and transient processes, and this is discussed in relation to the apparent chemical homogeneity of cardiac myosin.