Activation of myosin light chain kinase and nitric oxide synthase activities by engineered calmodulins with duplicated or exchanged EF hand pairs.

We have constructed three engineered calmodulins (CaMs) in which the two EF hand pairs have been substituted for one another or exchanged: CaMNN, the C-terminal EF hand pair (residues 82-148) has been replaced by a duplication of the N-terminal pair (residues 9-75); CaMCC, the N-terminal pair has been replaced by a duplication of the C-terminal pair; CaMCN, the two EF had pairs have been exchanged. Skeletal muscle myosin light chain kinase (skMLCK) activity is activated to 75% of the maximum level by CaMCC and to 45% of the maximum level by CaMCN and is not significantly activated by CaMNN; Kact or Ki values for the engineered CaMs are 2-3.5 nM. Smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase activity (gMLCK) is fully activated by CaMCN and is not significantly activated by either CaMNN or CaMCC; the Kact value for CaMCN is 2 nM and the Ki values for CaMNN and CaMCC are 10 and 40 nM, respectively. Cerebellar nitric oxide synthase activity (nNOS) is fully activated by CaMNN and CaMCN and is not significantly activated by CaMCC; the engineered CaMs have Kact or Ki values for this enzyme activity of 2-8 nM. These results indicate that the EF hand pairs contain distinct but overlapping sets of determinants for binding and activation of enzymes, with the greater degree of overlap in determinants for binding. Furthermore, while the structural changes associated with swapping the EF hand pairs do not affect activation of nNOS or gMLCK activities, they significantly reduce activation of skMLCK activity, indicating that this process requires specific determinants in CaM outside the EF hand pairs.