Ca2+-sensitive Cross-bridge Dissociation in the Presence of Magnesium Pyrophosphate in Skinned Rabbit Psoas Fibers

We find that at 6 degrees C in the presence of 4 mM MgPPi, at low or moderate ionic strength, skinned rabbit psoas fibers exhibit a stiffness and an equatorial x-ray diffraction pattern similar to that of rigor fibers. As the ionic strength is increased in the absence of Ca2+, both the stiffness and the equatorial x-ray diffraction pattern approach those of the relaxed state. This suggests that, as in solution, increasing ionic strength weakens the affinity of myosin cross-bridges for actin, which results in a decrease in the number of cross-bridges attached. The effect is Ca2+-sensitive. Assuming that stiffness is a measure of the number of cross-bridge heads attached, in the absence of Ca2+, the fraction of attached cross-bridge heads varies from approximately 75% to approximately 25% over an ionic strength range where ionic strength in solution weakens the binding constant for myosin subfragment-1 binding to unregulated actin by less than a factor of 3. Therefore, this phenomenon appears similar to the cooperative Ca2+-sensitive binding of S1 to regulated actin in solution (Greene, L. E., and E. Eisenberg, 1980, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 77:2616). By comparing the binding constants in solution and in the fiber under similar conditions, we find that the "effective actin concentration," that is, the concentration that gives the same fraction of S1 molecules bound to actin in solution as cross-bridge heads are bound to actin in a fiber, is in the millimolar range. An effective actin concentration in the millimolar range suggests that the strength of actin binding to cross-bridges in fibers may be several orders of magnitude weaker than the strength of ATP binding. Previously, it has been assumed that these two quantities were equal, as this gives the minimum energy loss when ATP dissociates the cross-bridge from actin (Morales, 1980, J. Supramol. Struct., 3:105:1975; Eisenberg, E.,Hill, T. L. and Y. Chen, 1980, Biophys. J., 29:195).