Dissociation of F-actin induced by hydrostatic pressure

F-actin purified from rabbit skeletal muscle undergoes reversible dissociation when subjected to hydrostatic pressures up to 240 MPa. Dissociation and reversibility were detected by the following procedures: fluorescence spectral changes observed under pressure, when either intrinsic tryptophan or pyrenyl emission of N-(1-pyrenyl)iodoacetamide-labeled actin were monitored; electron microscopy of samples fixed under pressure; size-exclusion HPLC of pressurized actin. The effect of pressure upon F-actin that had been polymerized in the presence of either Mg2+, Ca2+ or K+ was studied. The standard volume changes for the association of actin subunits, calculated from pressure/dissociation curves were 74 +/- 14 ml/mol for Mg-F-actin, 79 +/- 12 ml/mol for Ca-F-actin and 328 +/- 63 ml/mol for K-F-actin, indicating that actin subunits are packed differently in the polymer depending on which cation is present. All pressure/dissociation data could be fitted by a model for dissociation of a dimer, which suggests that in the F-actin filament there is a predominant intersubunit interaction interface, most likely the head-to-tail intrastrand interaction between two subunits which repeats itself along the polymer. A tenfold change in total protein concentration from 20 micrograms to 200 micrograms/ml Mg-F-actin did not cause a change in the pressure required for half-maximal dissociation. This indicates a heterogeneity of free energy of association among actin monomers in the Mg-F-actin polymer, suggesting that, in addition to the predominant intersubunit interaction, the disordered interactions in the filament significantly contribute to the heterogeneity of microenvironments in the interface between the subunits.