A study on the reactions of tubercidin triphosphate with myosin and actomyosin

The triphosphate ester of tubercidin (tubercidin triphosphate, TuTP) was synthesized. This is an analog of ATP in which a CH group replaces the N-7 of the adenine ring. The rate of TuTP hydrolysis by myosin in the presence of Mg2+ was the same as that of ATP in the 10(-7)-10(-3) M range, whereas the increment in the optical density of myosin ihe 290mmu region caused by TuTP was twice that caused by ATP. TuTP is hydrolyzed by actomyosin faster than ATP, the value of Vmax being about 4 times larger while the Km values were of the same order of magnitude. The rate of superprecipitation induced by TuTP was 50% of that caused by ATP at nucleotide concentrations of 3-60 muM. A similar difference was observed with respect to the rate of tension development by glycerol-extracted rabbit psoas fibers upon addition of these two substances. Substitution of ADP by tubercidin diphosphate (TuDP) in F-actin did not affect the rate of superprecipitation or enzymic activity of actomyosin.