Incubation of melittin with sarcoplasmic reticulum membranes at pH 7. 0 and different melittin:Ca-ATPase molar ratios results in the progressive loss of enzyme activity. At high melittin:Ca-ATPase molar ratios (10:1 and 30:1), enzyme inhibition may be described by a biexponential curve. At pH 7.0, the values of the pseudo-first-order rate constants are 1.0 and 0.1 min-1 for the fast and slow phases of inhibition, respectively, at a melittin:Ca-ATPase molar ratio of 30:1. At pH 6.0 and a melittin:Ca-ATPase molar ratio of 30:1, melittin does not inhibit Ca-ATPase. Melittin-induced aggregation of Ca-ATPase molecules was studied using cupric phenanthroline as a chemical cross-linking agent. At a melittin:Ca-ATPase molar ratio of 5:1, aggregation of Ca-ATPase protein was not observed; however, the loss of enzyme activity was about 30% after 30 min. At melittin:Ca-ATPase molar ratios of 10:1 and 30:1, significant aggregation of Ca-ATPase protein takes place. The rate of Ca-ATPase aggregation is much lower than the rate of enzyme inhibition. At melittin:Ca-ATPase molar ratios of 10:1 and 30:1, the rate of Ca-ATPase protein aggregation is close to that for the slow phase of enzyme inhibition. At pH 6.0 and a melittin:Ca-ATPase molar ratio of 30:1, significant aggregation of Ca-ATPase occurs. It is concluded that melittin induces both Ca-ATPase inhibition and aggregation. These two processes may occur simultaneously, but under some conditions either inhibition or aggregation takes place independently of each other. Therefore, the aggregation of Ca-ATPase induced by melittin is not necessary for enzyme inhibition.
Using cupric phenanthroline as a cross-linking agent, we have shown that melittin induced time-dependent aggregations of Na,K-ATPase in microsomal fractions and in preparations of purified Na,K-ATPase from duck salt glands. Incubation of melittin with these preparations also led to the progressive loss of Na,K-ATPase activity. At melittin/protein molar ratio of 5:1, we did not observe inhibition of Na,K-ATPase in the microsomal fraction but the process of enzyme aggregation occurred. At higher melittin/protein molar ratios (10:1 and 30:1), the inhibition of the enzyme and its aggregation proceeded simultaneously but the rates of these processes and maximal values achieved were different. At a melittin/protein ratio of 30:1, Na,K-ATPase inhibition may be described as a biexponential curve with the values for pseudo-first order rate constants being 2.7 and 0.15 min(-1). However, the aggregation may be presented by a monoexponential curve with a pseudo-first order rate constant of 0.15 min(-1). In purified preparations of Na,K-ATPase, the maximal aggregation (about 90%) was achieved at a melittin/protein molar ratio of 2:1, and a further increase in the melittin/protein ratio increased the rate of aggregation but did not affect the value of maximal aggregation. The results show that melittin induced both aggregation and inhibition of Na,K-ATPase but these two processes proceeded independently.
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