Molecular and biological studies on cardiac muscle calcium-binding protein (TN-C)

TN-C was purified from bovine cardiac muscle. In the absence of Ca-2+, cardiac TN-C has an intrinsic sedimentation coefficient of 1.93 S and a molecular weight of 18 000 daltons. Cardiac TN-C reverses the inhibitory effect of skeletal TN-I on the Mg-2+-activated ATPase of a skeletal synthetic actomyosin preparation in the presence of skeletal tropomyoson. Circular dichroism (CD) studies indicate that cardiac TN-C undergoes a major conformational change upon binding Ca-2+. A similar response is elicited by Sr-2+, whereas Mg-2+ has a much less pronounced effect. The presence of Mg-2+ does not alter the net effects of either Ca-2+ or Sr-2+. Cardiac TN-C is rich in acidic amino acid residues. UV absorption, near UV CD, and fluorimetric studies show that the protein lacks tryptophan and has a relatively high phenylalanine to tyrosine ratio. The results of this study invite direct comparisons with results reported for the skeletal muscle analogue of cardiac TN-C.