Regulation of cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase.

The two high affinity calcium binding sites of the cardiac (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase have been identified with the use of Eu3+. Eu3+ competes for the two high affinity calcium sites on the enzyme. With the use of laser-pulsed fluorescent spectroscopy, the environment of the two sites appear to be heterogeneous and contain different numbers of H2O molecules coordinated to the ion. The ion appears to be occluded even further in the presence of ATP. Using non-radiative energy transfer studies, we were able to estimate the distance between the two Ca2+ sites to be between 9.4 to 10.2 A in the presence of ATP. Finally, from the assumption that the calcium site must contain four carboxylic side chains to provide the 6-8 ligands needed to coordinate calcium, and based on our recently published data, we predict the peptidic backbone of the two sites.