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Updated: Oct 18, 2026

Assessment of Myofilament Ca2+ Sensitivity Underlying Cardiac Excitation-contraction Coupling
Published on: August 1, 2016
Reactions of the sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium adenosinetriphosphatase with adenosine 5'-triphosphate and Ca2+ that
1Graduate Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254.
Abstract:
Phosphorylation of the sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase, E, is first order with kb = 70 +/- 7 s-1 after free enzyme was mixed with saturating ATP and 50 microM Ca2+; this is one-third the rate constant of 220 s-1 for phosphorylation of enzyme preincubated with calcium, cE.Ca2, after being mixed with ATP under the same conditions (pH 7.0, Ca2+-loaded vesicles, 100 mM KCl, 5 mM Mg2+, 25 degrees C). Phosphorylation of E with ATP and Ca2+ in the presence of 0.25 mM ADP gives approximately 50% E approximately P.Ca2 with kobsd = 77 s-1, not the sum of the forward and reverse rate constants, kobsd = kf + kr = 140 s-1, that is expected for approach to equilibrium if phosphorylation were rate limiting. These results show that (1) kb represents a slow conformational change, rather than phosphoryl transfer, and (2) different pathways are followed for the phosphorylation of E and of cE.Ca2. The absence of a lag for phosphorylation of E with saturating ATP and Ca2+ indicates that all other steps, including the binding of Ca2+ ions and phosphoryl transfer, have rate constants of greater than 500 s-1. Chase experiments with unlabeled ATP or with ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) show that the rate constants for dissociation of [gamma-32P]ATP and Ca2+ are comparable to kb. Dissociation of ATP occurs at 47 s-1 from E.ATP.Ca2+ and at 24 s-1 from E.ATP. Approximately 20% phosphorylation occurs following an EGTA chase 4.5 ms after the addition of 300 microM ATP and 50 microM Ca2+ to enzyme. This shows that Ca2+ binds rapidly to the free enzyme, from outside the vesicle, before the conformational change (kb). The fraction of Ca2+-free E.[gamma-32P]ATP that is trapped to give labeled phosphoenzyme after the addition of Ca2+ and a chase of unlabeled ATP is half-maximal at 6.8 microM Ca2+, with a Hill slope of n = 1.8. The calculated dissociation constant for Ca2+ from E.ATP.Ca2 is approximately 2.2 X 10(-10) M2 (K0.5 = 15 microM). The rate constant for the slow phase of the biphasic reaction of E approximately P.Ca2 with 1.1 mM ADP increases 2.5-fold when [Ca2+] is decreased from 50 microM to 10 nM, with half-maximal increase at 1.7 microM Ca2+. This shows that Ca2+ is dissociating from a different species, aE.ATP.Ca2, that is active for catalysis of phosphoryl transfer, has a high affinity for Ca2+, and dissociates Ca2+ with k less than or equal to 45 s-1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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