Myosin filaments isolated from skinned amphibian smooth muscle cells are side-polar

The structure of myosin filaments isolated from skinned toad stomach smooth muscle cells has been examined by electron microscopy as a step toward identifying the in vivo structure. When negatively stained following exposure to relaxing conditions, the filaments exhibited a continuous 14-nm axial repeat of crossbridge projections with no central bare zone. The filaments thus differed from the bipolar filaments found in striated muscle and displayed instead features resembling side-polar and mixed-polarity filament models. By rotation of isolated filaments around their longitudinal axes it was found that cross bridges occurred only along two sides of the filament, an arrangement consistent with the side-polar but not the mixed-polarity model. The polarity is thus similar to that proposed for ribbons (Small & Squire, J. molec. Biol. 67, (1972) 17-149) and for synthetic smooth muscle myosin filaments (Craig and Megerman, J. Cell Biol. 75, (1977) 990-996); their appearance in cross-section, however, shows that these structures are filaments (i.e. with two axes of similar dimensions) and not broad ribbons. As the filaments were derived directly from skinned cells which contracted and relaxed in response to physiological levels of MgATP and Ca2+ at rates comparable to those of native, isolated cells, this unusual arrangement of cross bridges appears to be an effective, functional form of myosin in the contractile apparatus. Side-polar filaments therefore merit consideration as plausible candidates for the native organization of myosin in vertebrate smooth muscle cells.