Phenothiazine binding by a homolog of calpactin, the pp60src tyrosine kinase substrate

Vertebrate and yeast calmodulin, despite significant sequence divergence, are functionally interchangeable

Yeast strains relying solely on vertebrate (Xenopus laevis) calmodulin, expressed under control of a yeast (GAL1) promoter, grew at the same rate as yeast cells containing their endogenous calmodulin. Therefore, the ability to perform essential functions has been conserved between yeast and vertebrate calmodulins, suggesting that calmodulin performs the same (or overlapping) roles in yeast as it does in higher eukaryotes. Successful substitution of vertebrate for yeast calmodulin also suggests that the two proteins can adopt similar conformations in vivo, despite the large number of amino acid differences between them (60 out of 148 residues). Strains overproducing either vertebrate or yeast calmodulin about 100-fold and a strain producing a normal level of yeast calmodulin were essentially indistinguishable in many characteristics, including microtubule distribution, rate of secretion, response to mating pheromone, sporulation, and adaptation to nutrient limitation. Calmodulin overproduction did not confer elevated resistance to a phenothiazine drug, trifluoperazine, thought to be a calmodulin-specific inhibitor. These results have important implications for understanding the role of calmodulin in intracellular calcium signaling.

Mechanism of de novo mineral formation by matrix vesicles

Matrix vesicles (MV) induce mineralization by compartmentalization of ion accumulation and crystal nucleation within membrane-enclosed extracellular microstructures. MV derive from cell surface microvilli by processes that cause selective enrichment of specific proteins, enzymes, lipids, and electrolytes. Incubated in synthetic cartilage lymph (SCL), MV accumulate Ca2+ and Pi, inducing mineral formation in a sequence of stages that can be altered by specific affectors. Rapid uptake of mineral ions by MV precedes formation of the first crystalline phase, octacalcium phosphate (OCP), which later converts to apatite (HAP). Early uptake of Ca2+ and Pi by MV is pH and protease sensitive, and is stimulated by o-phenanthroline (OP), a Zn2+ chelator. Recent studies reveal that a quantitatively major group of MV proteins bind to Ca2+ with high affinity in a lipid-dependent manner. These MV proteins appear to be involved in transport and accumulation of Ca2+ and Pi by MV, and may catalyze nucleation of the first mineral phase.

Mammary gland Ca2+-binding (-dependent) proteins: identification as calelectrins and calpactin I/p36

Calcium-binding (-dependent) proteins (CBPs) associated with the spreading of mammary epithelial cell cultures have been identified as various calelectrins and calpactins (p36). In immunoblot analysis, the CBPs of 30-36 kD and 68-70 kD variously react with different calelectrin and calpactin I monomer/p36 antisera. The same immunoreactive proteins were shown to be present in virgin mammary glands and collagen gel mouse mammary epithelial cell cultures. The mammary CBPs show extensive immunochemical relatedness; however, they fail to show cross-reaction with antiserum to calpactin II (lipocortin) antiserum. These immunoreactive CBPs comigrate in electrophoresis with 35S-methionine-labeled CBPs isolated from mammary epithelial cell cultures. Unlike calmodulin, the mammary CBPs that correspond to calelectrins and calpactin I monomer/p36 are not stable to thermal denaturation. The mammary CBPs bind to epithelial cell membranes in a Ca2+-dependent manner and are differentially released from ruptured cells, compared with calmodulin, suggesting subcellular localization. Phenothiazine-agarose and phenylagarose are equivalent in their ability to bind the mammary CBPs. Thus, mammary gland CBPs of 30-36 kD and 68-70 kD have been shown to be related or equivalent to the calelectrins and to calpactin I monomer/p36. Since these proteins are known to bind Ca2+, we conclude that the mammary gland CBPs are also Ca2+-binding proteins. The mammary gland CBPs are immunologically related and probably represent members of a larger family of related proteins.

Isolation of a calcium-sensitive, 35,000-dalton microfilament- and liposome-binding protein from ascites tumor cell microvilli: identification as monomeric calpactin

Microvilli isolated from the MAT-C1 ascites subline of the 13762 rat mammary adenocarcinoma contain a major calcium-sensitive microfilament-binding protein, AMV-p35 (ascites microvillar p35). Association of AMV-p35 with microfilament cores during Triton X-100 extraction of the microvilli is half-maximal at 0.1-0.2 mM calcium. The protein, which comprises 6% of the total microvillar protein, can be isolated from microfilament cores prepared in the presence of calcium by extraction with EGTA and purification by ion-exchange chromatography. Alternatively, the protein can be isolated from Triton extracts of microvilli prepared in the absence of calcium by precipitation with calcium, solubilization of the precipitate with EGTA, and chromatography on an ion-exchange column. AMV-p35 binds to phosphatidylserine liposomes and F-actin with half-maximal calcium concentrations of about 10 microM and 0.2 mM, respectively. Treatment of AMV-p35 with chymotrypsin yields a 33,000-dalton fragment, behavior similar to the tyrosine kinase substrates calpactins I and II and lipocortins I and II. Immunoblot analyses using antibodies directed against calpactin I, lipocortin I, and lipocortin II showed strong reactivity of AMV-p35 with anti-calpactin I and anti-lipocortin II, but little reactivity toward anti-lipocortin I. The close relationship between AMV-p35 and calpactin I was verified by amino acid sequence analyses of peptides isolated from cyanogen bromide digests of AMV-p35. By gel filtration and velocity sedimentation analyses purified AMV-p35 is a 35,000-dalton monomer. Moreover, AMV-p35 extracted directly from microvilli in Triton/EGTA also behaves as a 35,000-dalton menomer. These findings indicate that AMV-p35 is closely related to the pp60src kinase substrate calpactin I (p36). However, AMV-p35 occurs in the microvilli as a monomer rather than as the heterotetrameric calpactin found in several other cell types.