7-Diethylamino-3-((4′-iodoacetylamino)phenyl)-4-methylcoumarin, a fluorescent probe of the hydrophobic cleft in the tropomyosin coiled coil

Abstract

A sulfhydryl-specific fluorescent reagent, 7-diethylamino-3-((4′-iodoacetylamino)phenyl)-4-methylcoumarin (DCIA) was used to label cysteine residues on tropomyosin (TM) from rabbit cardiac and rabbit skeletal muscles. The emission maximum at 486 nm, the high degree of fluorescence polarization, and the limited accessibility of the bound probe to quenching by iodide suggest that the probe is bound in the hydrophobic cleft between polypeptide chains of the TM coiled coil, as well as being bound covalently at a cysteine residue. The labelled TMs retain their abilities to bind F-actin and are able to interact with deoxyribonuclease I. They, however, show a reduced tendency to aggregate into filaments in low ionic strength solutions.