Myofibrillar tightly bound calcium in skeletal muscle fibers: a possible role of this cation in titin strands aggregation.

In muscle cells, part of the calcium is tightly bound to the N1- and N2-line of the sarcomere but its physiological significance was unknown. In the present work we reported the ability of a recombinant titin fragment spanning titin domains Z9 to I1 to tightly bind calcium ions with a K(d) of 0.049+/-0.004 nM. We further showed that calcium induced a spontaneous aggregation of the titin fragment and that the major aggregate is a tetramer. The implication of these findings on the organization of the six titin strands that emanate from the end of the thick filament within the I-band is discussed.