Abstract
Previously, we (Suzuki et al. (1978) J. Biochem. 84, 1529) reported that the sedimentation constant of chicken gizzard myosin in the presence of ATP was approximately 10S in 0.15 M or 0.2 M KCl and approximately 6S in 0.3 M or higher concentrations of KCl. The 10S-myosin and 6S-myosin were considerably different in conformation from each other. I now report the finding that the transformation of 6S-myosin to the 10S conformation results in a drastic change in the reactivity of thiol groups of gizzard myosin with N-iodoacetyl-N′-(5-sulfo-l-naphthyl)ethylenediamine (abbreviated as IAEDANS). The so SH1 thiol groups (Sekine et al. (1962) J. Biol. Chem. 237, 2769) were present on 68 kilodalton fragments (produced by tryptic digestion) of gizzard myosin. The reactivity of the thiol groups with IAEDANS was greatly decreased by the 6S to 10S transformation of gizzard myosin molecules. Two other findings were obtained. (a) Blocking the SH1-type thiol groups made the Mg-ATPase activities (in the presence of gizzard native tropomyosin) of gizzard myosin and of acto-gizzard myosin insensitive to calcium and to phosphorylation of regulatory light chains, although calcium-dependent phosphorylation of the IAEDANS-modified myosin could still occur. (b) It also made gizzard myosin filaments resistant to the disassembly action of ATP.