Susceptibility of Chara myosin to SH reagents

Cellular and intracellular motile events in plants are susceptible to SH reagents such as N-ethylmaleimide (NEM). It has long been believed that the target of the reagent is myosin. We compared the effect of NEM on the motile and ATPase activities of skeletal muscle myosin with that on plant myosin using characean algal myosin. It was found that the motile activity of myosin prepared from NEM-treated C. corallina decreased to a level accountable for the decrease in the velocity of cytoplasmic streaming but it was also found that Chara myosin was far less susceptible to NEM than skeletal muscle myosin.