期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:1976
卷号:73
期号:8
页码:2742-2746
DOI:10.1073/pnas.73.8.2742
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Actin can be cleaved by trypsin or chymotrypsin into a large, autonomous fragment with approximately 80% of the mass of the undegraded polypeptide. The protease-resistant cores obtained with either enzyme are very similar. Although the fragment does not bind calcium ions and fails to polymerize to the filamentous form of actin or to stimulate myosin adenosine triphosphatase (ATP phosphohydrolase, EC 3.6.1.3 ) activity, it retains the full capacity to bind ATP. This observation suggests that it represents an independent functional unit. Cleavage of globular actin with either trypsin or chymotrypsin occurs with half-times of 3 min, while that of filamentous actin proceeds with reaction half-times of 20 min for trypsin and nearly 2 hr for chymotrypsin. Denaturation and renaturation of the trypsin-resistant core shows that approximately 20% of the molecules refold to functional forms which indicates that the fragment can be considered as an independent unit of folding as well.