scholarly journals Caenorhabditis elegansUNC-96 Is a New Component of M-Lines That Interacts with UNC-98 and Paramyosin and Is Required in Adult Muscle for Assembly and/or Maintenance of Thick Filaments

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 3832-3847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina B. Mercer ◽  
Rachel K. Miller ◽  
Tina L. Tinley ◽  
Seema Sheth ◽  
Hiroshi Qadota ◽  
...  

To gain further insight into the molecular architecture, assembly, and maintenance of the sarcomere, we have carried out a molecular analysis of the UNC-96 protein in the muscle of Caenorhabditis elegans. By polarized light microscopy of body wall muscle, unc-96 mutants display reduced myofibrillar organization and characteristic birefringent “needles.” By immunofluorescent staining of known myofibril components, unc-96 mutants show major defects in the organization of M-lines and in the localization of a major thick filament component, paramyosin. In unc-96 mutants, the birefringent needles, which contain both UNC-98 and paramyosin, can be suppressed by starvation or by exposure to reduced temperature. UNC-96 is a novel ∼47-kDa polypeptide that has no recognizable domains. Antibodies generated to UNC-96 localize the protein to the M-line, a region of the sarcomere in which thick filaments are cross-linked. By genetic and biochemical criteria, UNC-96 interacts with UNC-98, a previously described component of M-lines, and paramyosin. Additionally, UNC-96 copurifies with native thick filaments. A model is presented in which UNC-96 is required in adult muscle to promote thick filament assembly and/or maintenance.

2000 ◽  
Vol 148 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanyuan Ao ◽  
Dave Pilgrim

In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, animals mutant in the gene encoding the protein product of the unc-45 gene (UNC-45) have disorganized muscle thick filaments in body wall muscles. Although UNC-45 contains tetratricopeptide repeats (TPR) as well as limited similarity to fungal proteins, no biochemical role has yet been found. UNC-45 reporters are expressed exclusively in muscle cells, and a functional reporter fusion is localized in the body wall muscles in a pattern identical to thick filament A-bands. UNC-45 colocalizes with myosin heavy chain (MHC) B in wild-type worms as well as in temperature-sensitive (ts) unc-45 mutants, but not in a mutant in which MHC B is absent. Surprisingly, UNC-45 localization is also not seen in MHC B mutants, in which the level of MHC A is increased, resulting in near-normal muscle thick filament structure. Thus, filament assembly can be independent of UNC-45. UNC-45 shows a localization pattern identical to and dependent on MHC B and a function that appears to be MHC B–dependent. We propose that UNC-45 is a peripheral component of muscle thick filaments due to its localization with MHC B. The role of UNC-45 in thick filament assembly seems restricted to a cofactor for assembly or stabilization of MHC B.


1996 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
P E Hoppe ◽  
R H Waterston

Caenorhabditis elegans body wall muscle contains two isoforms of myosin heavy chain, MHC A and MHC B, that differ in their ability to initiate thick filament assembly. Whereas mutant animals that lack the major isoform, MHC B, have fewer thick filaments, mutant animals that lack the minor isoform, MHC A, contain no normal thick filaments. MHC A, but not MHC B, is present at the center of the bipolar thick filament where initiation of assembly is thought to occur (Miller, D.M.,I. Ortiz, G.C. Berliner, and H.F. Epstein. 1983. Cell. 34:477-490). We mapped the sequences that confer A-specific function by constructing chimeric myosins and testing them in vivo. We have identified two distinct regions of the MHC A rod that are sufficient in chimeric myosins for filament initiation function. Within these regions, MHC A displays a more hydrophobic rod surface, making it more similar to paramyosin, which forms the thick filament core. We propose that these regions play an important role in filament initiation, perhaps mediating close contacts between MHC A and paramyosin in an antiparallel arrangement at the filament center. Furthermore, our analysis revealed that all striated muscle myosins show a characteristic variation in surface hydrophobicity along the length of the rod that may play an important role in driving assembly and determining the stagger at which dimers associate.


1999 ◽  
Vol 147 (5) ◽  
pp. 1039-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenchuan Liang ◽  
Hans M. Warrick ◽  
James A. Spudich

Myosin II thick filament assembly in Dictyostelium is regulated by phosphorylation at three threonines in the tail region of the molecule. Converting these three threonines to aspartates (3×Asp myosin II), which mimics the phosphorylated state, inhibits filament assembly in vitro, and 3×Asp myosin II fails to rescue myosin II–null phenotypes. Here we report a suppressor screen of Dictyostelium myosin II–null cells containing 3×Asp myosin II, which reveals a 21-kD region in the tail that is critical for the phosphorylation control. These data, combined with new structural evidence from electron microscopy and sequence analyses, provide evidence that thick filament assembly control involves the folding of myosin II into a bent monomer, which is unable to incorporate into thick filaments. The data are consistent with a structural model for the bent monomer in which two specific regions of the tail interact to form an antiparallel tetrameric coiled–coil structure.


1986 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 985-993 ◽  
Author(s):  
H F Epstein ◽  
I Ortiz ◽  
L A Mackinnon

Myosin isoforms A and B are located at the surface of the central and polar regions, respectively, of thick filaments in body muscle cells of Caenorhabditis elegans, whereas paramyosin and a distinct core structure comprise the backbones of these filaments. Thick filaments and related structures were isolated from nematode mutants that have altered thick filament protein compositions. These mutant filaments and their complexes with specific antibodies were studied by electron microscopy to determine the distribution of the two myosins. The compartmentation of the two myosin isoforms in body wall muscle thick filaments depends not only upon the intrinsic properties of the myosins but their interactions with other components such as paramyosin and their relative quantities determined by synthesis.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Yen R. Hu ◽  
Maegen A. Ackermann ◽  
Aikaterini Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos

The sarcomeric M-region anchors thick filaments and withstands the mechanical stress of contractions by deformation, thus enabling distribution of physiological forces along the length of thick filaments. While the role of the M-region in supporting myofibrillar structure and contractility is well established, its role in mediating additional cellular processes has only recently started to emerge. As such, M-region is the hub of key protein players contributing to cytoskeletal remodeling, signal transduction, mechanosensing, metabolism, and proteasomal degradation. Mutations in genes encoding M-region related proteins lead to development of severe and lethal cardiac and skeletal myopathies affecting mankind. Herein, we describe the main cellular processes taking place at the M-region, other than thick filament assembly, and discuss human myopathies associated with mutant or truncated M-region proteins.


1985 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 904-915 ◽  
Author(s):  
H F Epstein ◽  
D M Miller ◽  
I Ortiz ◽  
G C Berliner

Myosin isoforms A and B are differentially localized to the central and polar regions, respectively, of thick filaments in body wall muscle cells of Caenorhabditis elegans (Miller, D. M. III, I. Ortiz, G. C. Berliner, and H. F. Epstein, 1983, Cell, 34:477-490). Biochemical and electron microscope studies of KCl-dissociated filaments show that the myosin isoforms occupy a surface domain, paramyosin constitutes an intermediate domain, and a newly identified core structure exists. The diameters of the thick filaments vary significantly from 33.4 nm centrally to 14.0 nm near the ends. The latter value is comparable to the 15.2 nm diameter of the core structures. The internal density of the filament core appears solid medially and hollow at the poles. The differentiation of thick filament structure into supramolecular domains possessing specific substructures of characteristic stabilities suggests a sequential mode for thick filament assembly. In this model, the two myosin isoforms have distinct roles in assembly. The behavior of the myosins, including nucleation of assembly and determination of filament length, depend upon paramyosin and the core structure as well as their intrinsic molecular properties.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sampath K. Gollapudi ◽  
Suman Nag

ABSTRACTA hallmark feature of myosin-II is that it can spontaneously self-assemble into bipolar synthetic thick filaments (STFs) in low ionic strength buffers, thereby serving as a reconstituted in vitro model for muscle thick filament. While these STFs have been extensively used for structural characterization, their use for functional studies has been very limited. In this report, we show that the ultra-low ATP-consuming super-relaxed (SRX) state of myosin is electrostatically more stable in STFs as compared with shorter myosin sub-fragments that lack the distal tail required for thick filament assembly. However, this electrostatic stability of the SRX state is weakened by phosphorylation of myosin light chains or the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-causing myosin R403Q mutation. We also show that ADP binding to myosin depopulates the SRX population in STFs made of wild-type (WT) myosin, but not in S1, HMM, or STFs made of mutant R403Q myosin. Collectively, these findings emphasize that a critical network of inter- and intra-molecular interactions that underlie the SRX state of myosin are mostly preserved in STFs, establishing it as a native-like tool to interrogate myosin regulation. Next, using STFs, we show that a clinical-stage small molecule inhibitor, mavacamten, is more effective in promoting the myosin SRX state in STFs than in S1 or HMM and that it is equally potent in STFs made of atrial-WT, ventricular-WT, and mutant-R403Q myosin. Also, we found that mavacamten-bound heads are not permanently protected in the SRX state but can be recruited in response to physiological perturbations, thus providing new insights into its inhibitory mechanism.


2000 ◽  
Vol 151 (7) ◽  
pp. 1483-1500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Reedy ◽  
Belinda Bullard ◽  
Jim O. Vigoreaux

Flightin is a multiply phosphorylated, 20-kD myofibrillar protein found in Drosophila indirect flight muscles (IFM). Previous work suggests that flightin plays an essential, as yet undefined, role in normal sarcomere structure and contractile activity. Here we show that flightin is associated with thick filaments where it is likely to interact with the myosin rod. We have created a null mutation for flightin, fln0, that results in loss of flight ability but has no effect on fecundity or viability. Electron microscopy comparing pupa and adult fln0 IFM shows that sarcomeres, and thick and thin filaments in pupal IFM, are 25–30% longer than in wild type. fln0 fibers are abnormally wavy, but sarcomere and myotendon structure in pupa are otherwise normal. Within the first 5 h of adult life and beginning of contractile activity, IFM fibers become disrupted as thick filaments and sarcomeres are variably shortened, and myofibrils are ruptured at the myotendon junction. Unusual empty pockets and granular material interrupt the filament lattice of adult fln0 sarcomeres. Site-specific cleavage of myosin heavy chain occurs during this period. That myosin is cleaved in the absence of flightin is consistent with the immunolocalization of flightin on the thick filament and biochemical and genetic evidence suggesting it is associated with the myosin rod. Our results indicate that flightin is required for the establishment of normal thick filament length during late pupal development and thick filament stability in adult after initiation of contractile activity.


Author(s):  
D. A. Fischman ◽  
J. E. Dennis ◽  
T. Obinata ◽  
H. Takano-Ohmuro

C-protein is a 150 kDa protein found within the A bands of all vertebrate cross-striated muscles. By immunoelectron microscopy, it has been demonstrated that C-protein is distributed along a series of 7-9 transverse stripes in the medial, cross-bridge bearing zone of each A band. This zone is now termed the C-zone of the sarcomere. Interest in this protein has been sparked by its striking distribution in the sarcomere: the transverse repeat between C-protein stripes is 43 nm, almost exactly 3 times the 14.3 nm axial repeat of myosin cross-bridges along the thick filaments. The precise packing of C-protein in the thick filament is still unknown. It is the only sarcomeric protein which binds to both myosin and actin, and the actin-binding is Ca-sensitive. In cardiac and slow, but not fast, skeletal muscles C-protein is phosphorylated. Amino acid composition suggests a protein of little or no αhelical content. Variant forms (isoforms) of C-protein have been identified in cardiac, slow and embryonic muscles.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. eabe7999
Author(s):  
Klaas Yperman ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Dominique Eeckhout ◽  
Joanna Winkler ◽  
Lam Dai Vu ◽  
...  

Eukaryotic cells rely on endocytosis to regulate their plasma membrane proteome and lipidome. Most eukaryotic groups, except fungi and animals, have retained the evolutionary ancient TSET complex as an endocytic regulator. Unlike other coatomer complexes, structural insight into TSET is lacking. Here, we reveal the molecular architecture of plant TSET [TPLATE complex (TPC)] using an integrative structural approach. We identify crucial roles for specific TSET subunits in complex assembly and membrane interaction. Our data therefore generate fresh insight into the differences between the hexameric TSET in Dictyostelium and the octameric TPC in plants. Structural elucidation of this ancient adaptor complex represents the missing piece in the coatomer puzzle and vastly advances our functional as well as evolutionary insight into the process of endocytosis.


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