Separation and amino acid composition of three troponin components from bovine muscle

Three troponin components were isolated from bovine skeletal muscle, and their molecular weights and amino acid composition were studied. Crude troponin prepared from bovine muscle was purified by DEAE-Toyopearl chromatography. The purified troponin was dissociated in the order of tropopins C, I and T by CM-Toyopearl chromatography in the presence of 6 M urea. The molecular weights of troponins C, I and T were 19,500, 23,300 and 40,400, respectively, as determined with SDS-PAGE. The separation of troponin into three components was also achieved using reverse-phase HPLC; however, the elution order of troponins T and C was contrary to that of the cation-exchange chromatography described above. In this study, the amino acid composition of the three troponin components from bovine skeletal muscle was first determined. The amino acid composition of the three troponin components among bovine, rabbit and chicken skeletal muscles showed stronger similarity than that between bovine skeletal and cardiac muscle with a different muscle type. We considered that this method of troponin preparation from bovine muscle must be a very useful technique for investigating the changes in troponin components, especially troponin T, during ageing of beef.