Norman C, Rall JA, Tikunova SB, Davis JP. Modulation of the rate of cardiac muscle contraction by troponin C constructs with various calcium binding affinities. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 293: H2580-H2587, 2007. First published August 10, 2007; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00039.2007.-We investigated whether changing thin filament Ca 2ϩ sensitivity alters the rate of contraction, either during normal cross-bridge cycling or when cross-bridge cycling is increased by inorganic phosphate (P i). We increased or decreased Ca 2ϩ sensitivity of force production by incorporating into rat skinned cardiac trabeculae the troponin C (TnC) mutants V44QTnCF27W and F20QTnCF27W . The rate of isometric contraction was assessed as the rate of force redevelopment (ktr) after a rapid release and restretch to the original length of the muscle. Both in the absence of added Pi and in the presence of 2.5 mM added Pi F27W . This study suggests that TnC Ca 2ϩ binding properties modulate the rate of cardiac muscle contraction at submaximal levels of Ca 2ϩ activation. This result has physiological relevance considering that, on a beat-to-beat basis, the heart contracts at submaximal Ca 2ϩ activation.force; thin filament CARDIAC MUSCLE CONTRACTION is initiated by Ca 2ϩ binding to troponin C (TnC), which triggers conformational changes on the thin filament, exposing myosin-binding sites on actin. After the myosin heads (cross bridges) attach to actin, the thin filaments slide along the thick filaments and the muscle contracts (18). The kinetics of cross-bridge cycling can be studied with several approaches. One approach has been developed by Brenner (3, 4). According to this protocol, a rapid shorteningrestretch maneuver mechanically detaches the cross bridges, and the rate at which the cross bridges reattach and generate force is a measure of the rate of contraction, known as the rate of force (tension) redevelopment (k tr ).In both cardiac and skeletal muscle, it is well established that k tr becomes faster with increasing levels of activation by Ca 2ϩ (5,6,13,28,46). Many studies have investigated the role Ca 2ϩ plays in the activation dependence of k tr (for review, see Ref. 13). It has been proposed that the effects of Ca 2ϩ on k tr occur either as a direct effect of Ca 2ϩ on the cross bridges or indirectly by activation of the thin filament, which subsequently allows cross bridges to cycle from non-force-generating states to force-generating states. Studies in skeletal muscle investigated the hypothesis that Ca 2ϩ has a direct effect on the cross bridge cycle. Caged inorganic phosphate (P i ) experiments suggest that Ca 2ϩ does not regulate the kinetics of P i release but rather the distribution of cross bridges between non-force-generating and force-generating states (25,45). Similarly, in vitro motility assays have shown that Ca 2ϩ , through binding to TnC, controls the number of cross bridges interacting with actin rather than directly controlling the rate of ATP hydrolysis or the filament sliding speed (14, 17). Moreover, Ca 2ϩ does...