Purification of myosin light chain kinase from Limulus muscle

It has previously been shown that the regulatory light chains of myosin from Limulus, the horseshoe crab, can be phosphorylated either by purified turkey gizzard smooth muscle myosin light chain (MLC) kinase or by a crude kinase fraction prepared from Limulus muscle [Sellers, J. R. (1981) J. Biol. Chem. 256, 9274-9278]. This phosphorylation was shown to be associated with a 20-fold increase in the actin-activated MgATPase activity of the myosin. We have now purified the Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent MLC kinase from Limulus muscle to near homogeneity by using a combination of low ionic strength extraction, ammonium sulfate fractionation, and chromatography on Sephacryl S-300 and DEAE-Sephacel. The final purification was achieved by affinity chromatography on a calmodulin-Sepharose 4B column. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed 95% of the protein to be comprised of a doublet with Mr = 39000 and 37000. Electrophoresis of the kinase fraction under nondenaturing conditions resulted in a partial separation of the two major bands and demonstrated that each had catalytic activity. An SDS-polyacrylamide gel overlayed with 125I-calmodulin demonstrated that both the Mr 39K and the Mr 37K proteins bind calmodulin. Neither of the bands could be phosphorylated by the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase. With Limulus myosin light chains as a substrate, the Vmax was 15.4 mumol min-1 mg-1, and the Km was 15.6 microM. The KD for calmodulin was determined to be 6 nM. The enzyme did not phosphorylate histones, casein, actin, or tropomyosin.