Two different heavy chains are found in smooth muscle myosin

1986 ◽  
Vol 250 (6) ◽  
pp. C861-C870 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Rovner ◽  
M. M. Thompson ◽  
R. A. Murphy

Two putative myosin heavy chains designated SM1 and SM2 were detected on a 3.5% polyacrylamide-sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis system loaded with homogenates of several mammalian smooth muscles. The two polypeptides were present in nearly equal amounts in all smooth muscle tissues tested and in myosin purified from swine carotid media and stomach. Both proteins were equally stained by smooth muscle-specific myosin antibodies. The smaller of the polypeptides had a mobility nearly identical to that of the single heavy chain observed in purified fast-twitch skeletal myosin. Electrophoresis of pyrophosphate extracts from swine carotid media, swine stomach, rabbit thoracic aorta, and guinea pig taenia coli on nondenaturing pyrophosphate gels revealed a single protein band. When subsequently electrophoresed on a sodium dodecyl sulfate gel, the native bands from swine tissue extracts revealed the two putative heavy chains in nearly equal amounts, as well as a large amount of a higher molecular weight peptide whose properties reflect those of filamen. Sodium dodecyl sulfate gel analysis of the myosin band from pyrophosphate gels of purified swine stomach myosin showed exclusively the two heavy chains in a nearly 1:1 ratio. Smooth muscle myosin migrates homogeneously on pyrophosphate gels, and the virtual equality of the two heavy chains may reflect the presence of large amounts of a myosin isoenzyme, which is a heavy-chain heterodimer.

1988 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukhallad A Mohammad ◽  
Malcolm P Sparrow

The stoichiometry of the two heavy chains of myosin in smooth muscle was determined by electrophoresing extracts of native myosin and of dissociated myosin on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) 4%-polyacrylamide gels. The slower migrating heavy chain was 3�6 times more abundant in toad stomach, 2�3 in rabbit myometrium, 2�0 in rat femoral artery, 1�3 in guinea pig ileum, 0�93 in pig trachea and 0�69 in human bronchus, than the more rapidly migrating chain. Both heavy chains were identified as smooth muscle myosin by immunoblotting using antibodies to smooth muscle and nonmuscle myosin. The unequal proportion of heavy chains suggested the possibility of native isoforms of myosin comprised of heavy-chain homodimers. To test this, native myosin extracts were electrophoresed on non-dissociating (pyrophosphate) gels. When each band was individually analysed on SDS-polyacrylamide gel the slowest was found to be filamin and the other bands were myosin in which the relative proportion of the heavy chains was unchanged from that found in the original tissue extracts. Since this is incompatible with either a heterodimeric or a homodimeric arrangement it suggests that pyrophosphate gel electrophoresis is incapable of separating putative isoforms of native myosin.


1985 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
M D Schneider ◽  
J R Sellers ◽  
M Vahey ◽  
Y A Preston ◽  
R S Adelstein

We have produced and characterized monoclonal antibodies that label antigenic determinants distributed among three distinct, nonoverlapping peptide domains of the 200-kD heavy chain of avian smooth muscle myosin. Mice were immunized with a partially phosphorylated chymotryptic digest of adult turkey gizzard myosin. Hybridoma antibody specificities were determined by solid-phase indirect radioimmunoassay and immunoreplica techniques. Electron microscopy of rotary-shadowed samples was used to directly visualize the topography of individual [antibody.antigen] complexes. Antibody TGM-1 bound to a 50-kD peptide of subfragment-1 (S-1) previously found to be associated with actin binding and was localized by immunoelectron microscopy to the distal aspect of the myosin head. However, there was no antibody-dependent inhibition of the actin-activated heavy meromyosin ATPase, nor was antibody TGM-1 binding to actin-S-1 complexes inhibited. Antibody TGM-2 detected an epitope of the subfragment-2 (S-2) domain of heavy meromyosin but not the S-2 domain of intact myosin or rod, consistent with recognition of a site exposed by chymotryptic cleavage of the S-2:light meromyosin junction. Localization of TGM-2 to the carboxy-terminus of S-2 was substantiated by immunoelectron microscopy. Antibody TGM-3 recognized an epitope found in the light meromyosin portion of myosin. All three antibodies were specific for avian smooth muscle myosin. Of particular interest is that antibody TGM-1, unlike TGM-3, bound poorly to homogenates of 19-d embryonic smooth muscles. This indicates the expression of different myosin heavy chain epitopes during smooth muscle development.


2001 ◽  
Vol 291 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
José A.A. Sant'Ana Pereira ◽  
Marion Greaser ◽  
Richard L. Moss

1993 ◽  
Vol 264 (5) ◽  
pp. H1653-H1662 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. E. Tsao ◽  
T. J. Eddinger

Two smooth muscle myosin heavy chains (MHC; SM1 and SM2) of approximately 204 and 200 kDa exist in smooth muscle cells and can be visualized on reducing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gels. Chymotryptic digestion of the native myosin molecule results in two fragments: heavy meromyosin (HMM) and light meromyosin (LMM). LMM is the alpha-helical coiled-coil carboxy terminal half of the molecule containing the difference peptide between SM1 and SM2. Electrophoresis of the LMM fragments on a reducing SDS-polyacrylamide gel resolves two subunits from the two MHC [LM1 from SM1 (approximately 100 kDa) and LM2 from SM2 (approximately 95 kDa), where LM1 and LM2 are LMM from SM1 and SM2, respectively]. CuCl2 oxidation of the LMM fragment forms intramolecular disulfide bonds between adjacent cysteines on the two LMM fragments. When the native LMM is oxidized with CuCl2 and run on a nonreducing SDS-polyacrylamide gel, three bands are observed, which migrate at approximately 195, 190, and 185 kDa (bands 1, 2, and 3). Excision of these bands and electrophoresis on a reducing SDS-polyacrylamide gel show their subunit composition. Band 1 is composed solely of LM1. Band 2 is composed of an equal ratio of LM1 and LM2, and band 3 is composed solely of LM2. Using a variety of biochemical procedures, along with nonreducing SDS-polyacrylamide gels, we interpret these results to indicate that there are three smooth muscle myosin isoforms that result from the various combinations of the two smooth muscle MHC (SM1 homodimer, SM1-SM2 heterodimer, and SM2 homodimer).


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