The site of phosphorylation of troponin I in the perfused rabbit heart. The effect of adrenaline.

1. On treatment of the perfused rabbit heart with adrenaline, the total covalently bound phosphate of troponin I increased from 1.14 mol of phosphate/mol to 1.86 mol of phosphate/mol. 2. Covalently bound phosphate could be identified only in the region of the molecule of cardiac troponin I consisting of residues 1--48. 3. When 32P-labelled orthophosphate was present in the perfusion medium the phosphate at serine-20 became radioactively labelled. This residue was the only significant site of phosphorylation that could be identified. 4. The addition of adrenaline caused a 4--5-fold increase in covalently bound [32P]phosphate. Virtually all of the 32P was located at serine-20. 5. It was concluded from these studies that the extent of phosphorylation of serine-20 of cardiac troponin I increased from 30--40% in the control perfused heart to about 100% in the presence of adrenaline.