A phosphorylated light-chain component of myosin from skeletal muscle

Abstract

1. The low-molecular-weight components of myosin from rabbit skeletal muscle migrated as four bands on polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis in 8m-urea but only as three in systems containing sodium dodecyl sulphate. The two bands of intermediate mobility in 8m-urea (Ml2 and Ml3) had identical mobilities in sodium dodecyl sulphate. 2. The isolation of pure samples of all four low-molecular-weight components by DEAE-Sephadex chromatography is described. 3. The amino acid compositions of components Ml2 and Ml3 were identical. Further analyses showed the presence of 1 mol of phosphate/18500g of component Ml2 and less than 10% of this amount in component Ml3. Neither light component contained ribose. 4. Alkaline phosphatase from Escherichia coli converted component Ml2 into Ml3. Incubation with crude preparations of phosphorylase b kinase or protein kinase in the presence of ATP converted component Ml3 into Ml2. 5. Phosphorylation of component Ml3 with the kinases isolated from skeletal muscle and [γ-32P]ATP gave incorporation of 32P only into component Ml2 whether whole myosin or separated low-molecular-weight components were used. 6. High-voltage electrophoresis at pH6.5 and pH1.8 of a chymotryptic digest of 32P-labelled component Ml2 yielded one major radioactive peptide containing serine phosphate. 7. The amino acid sequence of this peptide was shown to be: Arg-Ala-Ala-Ala-Glu-Gly-Gly-(Ser,Ser(P))-Asn-Val-Phe. This sequence shows no obvious similarity to the site phosphorylated in the conversion of phosphorylase b into phosphorylase a by phosphorylase b kinase. 8. Evidence suggests that in vivo all the 18500-molecular-weight light chain is in the phosphorylated form. The extent of dephosphorylation that occurred during myosin extraction depended on the conditions employed.