Modulation of calpastatin specificity in rat tissues by reversible phosphorylation and dephosphorylation.

Two calpastatins, with Mr 110 KD and named calpastatin I and II, have been isolated from rat heart and kidney and displayed distinct inhibitory efficiency with mu- and m-calpain, respectively, as those isolated from rat skeletal muscle. Whereas the level of calpastatin I always exceeds that of mu-calpain, the level of calpastatin II appears to be more closely correlated to the level of m-calpain. As previously shown for skeletal muscle, the two inhibitor proteins can be interconverted by a phosphorylation-dephosphorylation reaction; the enzyme responsible for phosphate incorporation in calpastatin I is now identified in c-AMP dependent protein kinase A. In rat erythrocytes, containing a single calpain form, the single low Mr calpastatin form does not undergo reversible phosphorylation and is equally efficient in respect to typical mu- and m-calpain. The presence of two interconvertible calpastatin forms provides the cells with a highly sensitive mechanism of regulation of the Ca(2+)-dependent proteolytic system.