Requirements for in vitro shortening and lengthening of isolated thick filaments of Limulus striated muscle

Invertebrate muscles: thin and thick filament structure; molecular basis of contraction and its regulation, catch and asynchronous muscle

This is the second in a series of canonical reviews on invertebrate muscle. We cover here thin and thick filament structure, the molecular basis of force generation and its regulation, and two special properties of some invertebrate muscle, catch and asynchronous muscle. Invertebrate thin filaments resemble vertebrate thin filaments, although helix structure and tropomyosin arrangement show small differences. Invertebrate thick filaments, alternatively, are very different from vertebrate striated thick filaments and show great variation within invertebrates. Part of this diversity stems from variation in paramyosin content, which is greatly increased in very large diameter invertebrate thick filaments. Other of it arises from relatively small changes in filament backbone structure, which results in filaments with grossly similar myosin head placements (rotating crowns of heads every 14.5 nm) but large changes in detail (distances between heads in azimuthal registration varying from three to thousands of crowns). The lever arm basis of force generation is common to both vertebrates and invertebrates, and in some invertebrates this process is understood on the near atomic level. Invertebrate actomyosin is both thin (tropomyosin:troponin) and thick (primarily via direct Ca(++) binding to myosin) filament regulated, and most invertebrate muscles are dually regulated. These mechanisms are well understood on the molecular level, but the behavioral utility of dual regulation is less so. The phosphorylation state of the thick filament associated giant protein, twitchin, has been recently shown to be the molecular basis of catch. The molecular basis of the stretch activation underlying asynchronous muscle activity, however, remains unresolved.

Structural changes accompanying phosphorylation of tarantula muscle myosin filaments

Electron microscopy has been used to study the structural changes that occur in the myosin filaments of tarantula striated muscle when they are phosphorylated. Myosin filaments in muscle homogenates maintained in relaxing conditions (ATP, EGTA) are found to have nonphosphorylated regulatory light chains as shown by urea/glycerol gel electrophoresis and [32P]phosphate autoradiography. Negative staining reveals an ordered, helical arrangement of crossbridges in these filaments, in which the heads from axially neighboring myosin molecules appear to interact with each other. When the free Ca2+ concentration in a homogenate is raised to 10(-4) M, or when a Ca2+-insensitive myosin light chain kinase is added at low Ca2+ (10(-8) M), the regulatory light chains of myosin become rapidly phosphorylated. Phosphorylation is accompanied by potentiation of the actin activation of the myosin Mg-ATPase activity and by loss of order of the helical crossbridge arrangement characteristic of the relaxed filament. We suggest that in the relaxed state, when the regulatory light chains are not phosphorylated, the myosin heads are held down on the filament backbone by head-head interactions or by interactions of the heads with the filament backbone. Phosphorylation of the light chains may alter these interactions so that the crossbridges become more loosely associated with the filament backbone giving rise to the observed changes and facilitating crossbridge interaction with actin.

Paramyosin and myosin content of the thick filament in the striated muscle of Limulus

The thick myofilaments of the striated muscle from the horseshoe crab (Limulus) are composed of the proteins paramyosin and myosin. Using quantitative gel electrophoresis we find that there are 1.02 paramyosin molecules for every myosin. This protein composition is consistent with scanning transmission electron microscopy measurements of isolated thick filament mass and the four-stranded helical filament structure reported previously by others if one assumes one myosin molecule per surface subunit as has been suggested. Polyclonal antibodies were used to distinguish myosin and paramyosin bands from others of similar electrophoretic mobility as well as to detect aggregates and breakdown products by examination of gel patterns transferred to nitrocellulose membranes. Two-dimensional gel maps were utilized as a check for coelectrophoresing bands that might go undetected in one dimension. Coomassie Blue binding per mg of purified myosin or paramyosin was found to differ by less than 5%. Extinction coefficients for Limulus myosin and paramyosin as calibrated to dry weight measurements are also reported.

Structure of short thick filaments from Limulus muscle

Shortened Limulus thick filaments, isolated from stimulated muscle, are structurally similar to long filaments, isolated from unstimulated muscle, except for length. Both have 3-fold screw symmetry with a helical repeat at approximately 43 nm, axial spacing of 14.5 nm between successive crowns of crossbridges and 4-fold rotational symmetry as estimated from the Bessel argument, by analysis of optical transforms of electron micrograph negatives of negatively stained samples. Both short and long filaments also have similar radii for the location of their crossbridges, thus similar diameters. Equal numbers of subunits/helical strand are also apparent on images of metal-shadowed long and short filaments. Since these data argue against molecular reorganization during filament shortening, it is suggested that the change in length of Limulus thick filaments may occur by reversible disaggregation of constituent protein molecules.

Limulus striated muscle provides an unusual model for muscle contraction

Although nearly two decades have passed since de Villafranca (1961) described A-band shortening, controversy persists. Here we will review the data which has been amassed since de Villafranca 's description. We will conclude that A-bands and thick filaments shorten during sarcomere shortening in Limulus striated muscle. Further we will suggest that two machines operate in this muscle: a tension generating sliding filament system and a tension generating thick filament shortening system. Also we will suggest a mechanism of force generation of the filament shortening system and provide evidence for a cycling bridge mechanism for this muscle.

Change in fixed-charge in the thick filament lattice of Limulus striated muscle with sarcomere shortening

A highly significant increase in fixed-charge occurs in the A-bands of Limulus striated muscle following activation and sarcomere shortening. This is in striking contrast to vertebrate striated muscle. Treatment with either papain or alkaline phosphatase reduces this fixed-charge. The increase in charge may serve as a motive force in thick filament shortening.

Length-tension relation in Limulus striated muscle

Laser diffraction techniques coupled with simultaneous tension measurements were used to determine the length-tension relation in intact, small (0.5-mm thick, 10-mm wide, 20-25-mm long) bundles of a Limulus (horseshoe crab) striated muscle, the telson levator muscle. This muscle differs from the model vertebrate systems in that the thick filaments are not of a constant length, but shorten from 4.9 to approximately 2.0 micrometers as the sarcomeres shorten from 7 to 3 micrometers. In the Limulus muscle, the length-tension relation plateaued to an average maximum tension of 0.34 N/mm2 at a sarcomere length of 6.5 micrometers (Lo) to 8.0 micrometers. In the sarcomere length range from 3.8 to 12.5 micrometers, the muscle developed 50% or more of the maximum tension. When the sarcomere lengths are normalized (expressed as L/Lo) and the Limulus data are compared to those from frog muscle, it is apparent that Limulus muscle develops tension over a relatively greater range of sarcomere lengths.