A comparison of the effects of calponin on smooth and skeletal muscle actomyosin systems in the presence and absence of caldesmon.

Thiosphosphorylated smooth muscle myosin and skeletal muscle myosin, both of which express Ca(2+)-independent actin-activated MgATPase activity, were used to examine the functional effects of calponin and caldesmon separately and together. Separately, calponin and caldesmon inhibited the actin-activated MgATPase activities of thiophosphorylated smooth muscle myosin and skeletal muscle myosin, calponin being significantly more potent in both systems. Calponin-mediated inhibition resulted from the interaction of calponin with actin since it could be reversed by increasing the actin concentration. Caldesmon had no significant influence on the calponin-induced inhibition of the smooth muscle actomyosin ATPase, nor did calponin have a significant effect on caldesmon-induced inhibition. In the skeletal muscle system, however, caldesmon was found to override the inhibitory effect of calponin. This difference probably reflects the lower affinity of skeletal muscle actin for calponin compared with that of smooth muscle actin. Calponin inhibition of skeletal muscle actin-activated myosin MgATPase was not significantly affected by troponin/tropomyosin, suggesting that the thin filament can readily accommodate calponin in addition to the troponin complex, or that calponin may be able to displace troponin. Calponin also inhibited acto-phosphorylated smooth muscle heavy meromyosin and acto-skeletal muscle heavy meromyosin MgATPases. The most appropriate protein preparations for analysis of the regulatory effects of calponin in the actomyosin system therefore would be smooth muscle actin, tropomyosin and thiophosphorylated myosin, and for analysis of the kinetic effects of calponin on the actomyosin ATPase cycle they would be smooth muscle actin, tropomyosin and phosphorylated heavy meromyosin, due to the latter's solubility.