Studies on the role of sulfhydryls in the myosin ATPase. Characterization of the site of modification by the bifunctional sulfhydryl reagent p-N,N'-phenylenedimaleimide.

Myosin has been modified with near stoichiometric amounts of the bifunctional reagent [14C]p-N,N'-phenylenedimaleimide (pPDM) in the presence of MgADP under conditions which abolish its ATPase activity. Subsequent carboxymethylation and CNBr cleavage results in the 14C label being associated with a single polypeptide of Mr approximately 10,000. Amino acid composition and partial sequence analysis of this peptide showed that it corresponded to the peptide containing -SH1 and -SH2 sequenced by Elzinga and Collins (Elzinga, M., and Collins, J.H. (1977) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 74, 4281-4284) and to the peptide labeled at -SH1 or -SH2 by N-ethylmaleimide by Kunz et al. (Kunz, P.A., Walser, J.T., Watterson, J.G., and Schaub, M.C. (1977) FEBS Lett. 83, 137-140). These data indicating that pPDM does label the -SH1- and -SH2-containing region in myosin by covalently bridging them and shows that in the presence of MgADP these thiols can approach to within 12 to 14 A.