Electrostatic interaction of loop 1 and backbone of human cardiac myosin regulates the rate of ATP induced actomyosin dissociation

Double mutation D208Q:K450L was introduced in the beta isoform of human cardiac myosin to remove the salt bridge D208:K450 connecting loop 1 and the seven-stranded beta sheet within the myosin head. Beta isoform-specific salt bridge D208:K450 was previously discovered in the molecular dynamics simulations. It was proposed that loop 1 modulates nucleotide affinity to actomyosin and we hypothesized that the electrostatic interactions between loop 1 and myosin head backbone regulates ATP binding to and ADP dissociation from actomyosin, and therefore, the time of the strong actomyosin binding. Wild type and the mutant of the myosin head construct (1-843 amino acid residues) were expressed in differentiated C2C12 cells, and the kinetics of ATP induced actomyosin dissociation and ADP release were characterized using transient kinetics spectrophotometry. Both constructs exhibit a fast rate of ATP binding to actomyosin and a slow rate of ADP dissociation, showing that ADP release limits the time of the strongly bound state of actomyosin. We observed a faster rate of ATP-induced actomyosin dissociation with the mutant, compared to the wild type actomyosin. The rate of ADP release from actomyosin remains the same for the mutant and the wild type actomyosin. We conclude that the flexibility of loop 1 is a factor affecting the rate of ATP binding to actomyosin and actomyosin dissociation. We observed no effect of loop 1 flexibility on the rate of ADP release from actomyosin. HighlightsO_LIHuman cardiac myosin has the isoform-specific salt bridge, electrostatically linking loop 1 and myosin head backbone. C_LIO_LIAbsence of loop 1 - backbone salt bridge increases rate of ATP-induced actomyosin dissociation C_LIO_LIThe rate of ADP dissociation from actomyosin is not affected by the isoform-specific salt bridge. C_LI