Mechanism of formation of actomyosin interface

Force generation in muscle results from binding of myosin to F-actin. ATP binding to myosin provides energy to dissociate actomyosin complex while the hydrolysis of ATP is needed for re-binding of myosin to F-actin. At the end of each cycle myosin and actin form a tight complex with a substantial interface area. We investigated the dynamics of formation of actomyosin interface in presence and absence of nucleotides by quenched flow cross-linking technique. We showed previously that myosin head (subfragment 1, S1) directly interacts with at least two monomers in the actin filament. The quenched flow cross-linking experiments revealed that the initial contact (in presence or absence of nucleotides) occurs between loop 635-647 of S1 and 1-12 N-terminal residues of one actin and, then, the second contact forms between loop 567-574 of S1 and the N terminus of the second actin. The distance between these two loops in S1 corresponds to the distance between N termini of two actins in the same strand (53 A) but is smaller than that between two actins from the different strands (102 A). The formation of the actomyosin complex proceeds in ordered sequence: S1 initially binds to one actin then binds with the second actin located in the same strand but probably closer to the barbed end of F-actin. The presence of nucleotides slows down the interaction of S1 with the second actin, which correlates with recently proposed cleft movement in a 50 kDa domain of S1. The sequential mechanism of formation of actomyosin interface starting from one end and developing towards the barbed end might be involved in force generation and directional movement in actin-myosin system.