Activation of human erythrocyte Ca2+-dependent Mg2+-activated ATPase by calmodulin and calcium: quantitative analysis

The effect of Ca2+ and calmodulin on (CaM) on the activation of Ca2+-dependent Mg2+-activated ATPase (Ca2+,Mg2+-ATPase; ATP phosphohydrolase, EC 3.6.1.3) has been carried out because of the finding that the CaM dependence of the activation varies with the concentration of free Ca2+, similarly to brain phosphodiesterase and adenylate cyclase. The study was carried out in the absence of chelating agents because they strongly interfere in the enzyme kinetics. Three main conclusions can be drawn (i) CaM-Ca3 and CaM-Ca4 together are the biochemically active species in vitro. (ii) These species bind in a non-cooperative way to the CaM-binding site of the enzyme with a dissociation constant of 6 x 10(-10) M or 1.1 x 10(-8) M, depending on whether Ca2+ saturates the substrate binding site of the enzyme or not. (iii) The binding of CaM-Ca3 to the enzyme lowers the dissociation constant of the enzyme for Ca2+ at the substrate binding site from 51.5 to 2.8 microM. Contrary to general belief, CaM does not induce pronounced positive cooperativity in the binding of Ca2+ to the enzyme. Such a cooperativity is seen only when the enzyme is incompletely saturated with the activator, but it disappears in the presence of saturating concentrations of CaM-Ca3. The rate equation proposed here accurately predicts the extent of enzyme activation over a wide range of Ca2+ and CaM concentration. In healthy erythrocytes the concentrations of Ca2+ and CaM are such that the Ca pump works with a minimal dissipation of energy, but a small increase in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration leads to a strong amplification of the pumping activity.