ABSTRACICalmodulin is a eukaryotic calcium binding protein which has several calcium-dependent in vitro activities. Presented in this report is a structural characterization of calmodulin from spinach leaves (Spinacia okracea determine what differences might exist in the primary structure of the plant protein compared to other known calmodulins. Any functional differences must be related to the covalent structure which, in turn, determines the three-dimensional structure. Presented here is amino acid sequence data and homologous alignments which provide a proposed primary structure of spinach calmodulin. Certain portions of the amino acid sequence of spinach calmodulin have appeared elsewhere (3, 27). MATERIALS AND METHODSCalmodulin is a eukaryotic Ca binding protein which modulates the activity of a number ofenzymes in vitro (13). Complete amino acid sequences have been determined for bovine brain (12,27,29) and human brain calmodulin (21). Nearly complete sequences have been published for rabbit skeletal muscle (6), bovine uterus (6), rat testis (4), sea anenome (24), Renilla (10), Tetrahymena (30), and scallop (25)
Calmodulin is the name proposed for a multifunctional, calcium binding protein whose presence has been detected in a number of eukaryotic cells. In the studies summarized here, calmodulin has been isolated from spinach leaves (Spinacea oleracea), characterized, and compared to vertebrate calmodulins. Quantitative recovery data for a rapid-isolation protocol demonstrate that calmodulin is a major constituent of spinach leaves. Spinach calmodulin is indistinguishable from vertebrate calmodulins in phosphodiesterase activator activity using vertebrate brain phosphodiesterase and in quantitative immunoreactivity using antiserum made against vertebrate calmodulin. However, spinach calmodulin is really distinguished from vertebrate and invertebrate calmodulins in electrophoretic mobility and in amino acid composition. Spinach calmodulin, like vertebrate calmodulins, lacks tryptophan and contains 1 mol each of N epsilon-trimethyllysine and histidine per 17000 g of protein. In contrast to vertebrate calmodulins, spinach calmodulin has only one tyrosinyl residue and has a threonine/serine ratio of 1.3. While amino acid compositions indicate differences between spinach and vertebrate calmodulins, isolation and characterization of tryptic peptides containing the single histidinyl and N epsilon-trimethyllysyl residues and both prolinyl residues indicate that these regions in spinach calmodulin are similar to the corresponding regions in vertebrate calmodulin. These studies more fully define the general and specific characteristics of calmodulins and indicate that calmodulin structure is not as highly conserved among all eukaryotes as it is among vertebrates and invertebrates.
Calmodulin, a multifunctional calcium-modulated protein, has been isolated from spinach leaf tissue and from spinach leaf messenger RNA translation products. The translation protein and the spinach leaf protein have been partially characterized and compared to vertebrate calmodulins. Spinach leaf calmodulin will quantitatively activate bovine brain phosphodiesterase and will undergo a calcium-dependent shift in electrophoretic mobility similar to that of bovine brain calmodulin. In the presence of Ca(2+) the spinach and brain proteins comigrate, but in the presence of chelators they do not. A polyadenylylated RNA fraction has been isolated from spinach leaf tissue and translated in a wheat germ cell-free translation system. The calmodulin synthesized in vitro has been isolated by using calcium-dependent affinity chromatography on phenothiazine-Sepharose conjugates. The translation protein comigrates with spinach calmodulin during polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis whether in the presence or the absence of Ca(2+). The translation protein also undergoes a calcium-dependent mobility shift identical to that of spinach calmodulin. Amino acid analysis of the translation calmodulin indicates that it does not contain N(epsilon)-trimethyllysine, an amino acid residue that is characteristic of all calmodulins previously examined. These studies suggest that N(epsilon)-trimethyllysine is not required for the calcium-dependent interaction of calmodulin with phenothiazines and indicate the potential utility of phenothiazine-Sepharose conjugates as affinity-based adsorbents in biological and biochemical investigations.
A B S T R A C T A fluorometric method for the determination of pyridine nucleotides has been adapted for use in studying the reduced pyridine nucleotide oxidases in human polymorphonuclear leukocytes. In the presence of strong base the oxidized forms of the pyridine nucleotides form a highly fluorescent product. The small amounts of NAD(P) formed by the oxidase reactions can be determined with great sensitivity. This method has been compared to the radioisotopic assay for NADPH oxidation. Both methods gave essentially the same results in terms of nanomoles NADP produced by control, resting, and phagocytizing samples.Both NADPH and NADH oxidase activities were insensitive to cyanide. NADPH oxidation had a pH optimum of 5.5, while that for NADH appeared to be 6.0. Granules isolated from phagocytizing cells routinely showed more activity toward both substrates (two to threefold) than granules from resting cells. Both activities were located primarily in a granule fraction prepared by differential centrifugation. Oxidation of NADPH was routinely four to five times that of NADH at all except very high substrate levels. Measurable NADH oxidation was rarely seen below 0.80 mM NADH, while NADPH oxidation was easily measurable at 0.20 mM. One patient with chronic granulomatous disease was studied. At low substrate levels, there was no activity toward either substrate in granules isolated from either resting or phagocytizing cells of this patient, while granules isolated from normal control cells showed substantial activity at these substrate levels.Purification of the activities has been initiated with linear sucrose gradients. Both activities co-sediment to
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