Electrophoretic separation by an improved method of fast myosin HCIIb-, HCIId-, and HCIIa-based isomyosins with specific alkali light chain combinations.

An improved method of electrophoresis under nondenaturing conditions separated three electrophoretically distinct isomyosin triplets when applied to rat fast-twitch muscles displaying a predominance of one of the fast myosin heavy chain isoforms HCIIb, HCIId or HCIIa. The three isomyosin triplets, named FM1b-FM3b, FM1d-FM3d, FM1a-FM3a, corresponded to the three possible alkali light chain (LC) combinations (LC1f homodimer, LC1f/LC3f heterodimer, and LC3f homodimer) with each fast HC isoform. Different proportions of these various isomyosins suggested specific affinities of light chains LC1f and LC3f for the fast heavy chain isoforms.