Antibodies as probes for Ca2+ activation sites in the Ca2+ release channel (ryanodine receptor) of rabbit skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum.

In earlier studies (Chen, S. R. W., Zhang, L., and MacLennan, D. H. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 23318-23326), an amino acid sequence, designated 13c2, lying between amino acid residues 4478 and 4512 in the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor was shown, through the use of a polyclonal antibody, to be involved in Ca(2+)-induced Ca2+ release. In the present study, an immobilized synthetic peptide, PEPEPEPEPE, corresponding to part of the predicted high affinity Ca2+ binding site between residues 4489 and 4499, was used to purify specific antibodies from an anti-13c2 rabbit antiserum. The effect of this affinity-purified, anti-peptide (anti-13cp1) antibody on Ca2+ release channel function was then characterized using single channel recordings across planar lipid bilayers. The anti-peptide antibody inhibited Ca(2+)- or caffeine-activated channel activities without closing the channel but did not diminish ATP-activated channel activity. The addition of ATP reversed the inhibition of the Ca(2+)- or caffeine-activated channel by the antibody, and the antibody-bound, ATP-activated channel was further modulated by Mg2+, ryanodine, and ruthenium red. The major epitopes in the anti-13c2 antibody, previously shown to activate the Ca2+ release channel by increasing the Ca2+ sensitivity of the channel, did not lie in the PE repeat. These results suggest that the PE repeat sequence forms a site involved in the Ca2+ activation pathway.