Physicochemical studies on the aggregation of bovine cardiac tropomyosin with ionic strength

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Abstract
The aggregation of bovine cardiac tropomyosin as a function of ionic strength has been studied by the techniques of sedimentation velocity, sedimentation equilibrium, osmometry, viscometry, and optical rotatory dispersion. The measurements indicate that in aqueous buffers at neutral pH and at ionic strengths below 0.6, cardiac tropomyosin is heterogeneous and consists of a monomer in equilibrium with its aggregates. Dissociation of the aggregates occurs on dilution to yield a molecular weight species of approximately 70 000, in very good agreement with the value obtained at high ionic strength. These observations essentially parallel similar findings noted for the polymerization of skeletal tropomyosin, with the exception that the cardiac protein shows no tendency to polymerize at high ionic strength. The virtual constancy of all the optical rotatory dispersion parameters with polymerization suggests that the association is probably linear rather than lateral, with no accompanying changes in secondary and tertiary structures of the individual monomers.

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