A principal goal of molecular biophysics is to show how protein structural transitions explain physiology. We have developed a strategic tool, transient time-resolved FRET [(TR) 2 FRET], for this purpose and use it here to measure directly, with millisecond resolution, the structural and biochemical kinetics of muscle myosin and to determine directly how myosin's power stroke is coupled to the thermodynamic drive for force generation, actin-activated phosphate release, and the weak-to-strong actin-binding transition. We find that actin initiates the power stroke before phosphate dissociation and not after, as many models propose. This result supports a model for muscle contraction in which power output and efficiency are tuned by the distribution of myosin structural states. This technology should have wide application to other systems in which questions about the temporal coupling of allosteric structural and biochemical transitions remain unanswered.FRET | myosin | power stroke | phosphate release | structural kinetics M yosin family proteins use ATP hydrolysis to generate force and movement required for normal physiology. They drive muscle contraction, help control cell division and cellular motility, move organelles through the cytoplasm, and are important elements of the cellular mechanical-sensing machinery (1, 2). The key to understanding how myosin and related enzymes function in cells, and how to modulate their activity to treat disease, is to determine how the protein's structural dynamics and biochemical kinetics are coupled. Although high-resolution crystal structures provide best-guess snapshots of protein structure over a range of biochemical states, determining the physiological relevance of these snapshots remains one of the central challenges of structural biophysics.How myosin generates force remains debated despite more than 50 y of intense research (1-3). The most popular current model (2, 4) proposes that after ATP hydrolysis, myosin interacts weakly with actin and this interaction initiates an ordered series of structural and biochemical transitions that culminate in the dissociation of hydrolyzed phosphate, followed by the isomerization of the actin-binding interface to a state that binds actin with nanomolar affinity and then the rotation of the myosin lightchain domain (LCD) toward the plus end of the actin filament. This rotation converts the thermodynamic energy of phosphate release and actin binding into mechanical energy that performs work. A number of results question this model, however, including spectroscopic data showing that a structural transition in the myosin relay helix, hypothesized to be coupled to LCD rotation, precedes P i release (5) and force development precedes P i release in muscle fibers (6).Determining how these events take place in solution and in cells is an important question, because (i) differences in the mechanics of different myosins likely reflect differences in how the biochemical and structural transitions described above are coordinated (4); (ii) disea...

Among patients undergoing cardiac surgery, concurrent surgical LAAO, compared with no surgical LAAO, was associated with reduced risk of subsequent stroke and all-cause mortality. Further research, including from randomized clinical trials, is needed to more definitively determine the role of surgical LAAO.

Myosins containing MyTH4-FERM (myosin tail homology 4-band 4.1, ezrin, radixin, moesin, or MF) domains in their tails are found in a wide range of phylogenetically divergent organisms, such as humans and the social amoeba Dictyostelium (Dd). Interestingly, evolutionarily distant MF myosins have similar roles in the extension of actin-filled membrane protrusions such as filopodia and bind to microtubules (MT), suggesting that the core functions of these MF myosins have been highly conserved over evolution. The structures of two DdMyo7 signature MF domains have been determined and comparison with mammalian MF structures reveals that characteristic features of MF domains are conserved. However, across millions of years of evolution conserved class-specific insertions are seen to alter the surfaces and the orientation of subdomains with respect to each other, likely resulting in new sites for binding partners. The MyTH4 domains of Myo10 and DdMyo7 bind to MT with micromolar affinity but, surprisingly, their MT binding sites are on opposite surfaces of the MyTH4 domain. The structural analysis in combination with comparison of diverse MF myosin sequences provides evidence that myosin tail domain features can be maintained without strict conservation of motifs. The results illustrate how tuning of existing features can give rise to new structures while preserving the general properties necessary for myosin tails. Thus, tinkering with the MF domain enables it to serve as a multifunctional platform for cooperative recruitment of various partners, allowing common properties such as autoinhibition of the motor and microtubule binding to arise through convergent evolution.protein evolution | molecular tinkering | microtubules | filopodia

A group of closely related myosins are characterized by the presence of at least one MyTH/FERM (myosin talin homology 4; band 4.1, ezrin, radixin, moesin) domain in their C-terminal tails. This domain interacts with a variety of binding partners, and mutations in either the MyTH4 or FERM domains of myosin VII and XV result in deafness, highlighting the functional importance of each domain. The N-terminal MyTH/FERM region of Dictyostelium myosin VII (M7) has been isolated as a first step toward gaining insight into the function of this domain and its interaction with binding partners. The M7 MyTH4/FERM domain (MF1) binds to both actin and microtubules in vitro, with dissociation constants of 13.7 and 1.7 μM, respectively. Gel filtration and UV spectroscopy reveal that MF1 exists as a monomer in solution and forms a well-folded, compact conformation with a high degree of secondary structure. These results indicate that MF1 forms an integrated structural domain that serves to couple actin filaments and microtubules in specific regions of the cytoskeleton.

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