Calcium-Activated Tension of Skinned Muscle Fibers of the Frog

The influence of MgATP on the Ga(++)-activated isometric tension of skinned frog muscle fibers was examined in solutions containing: Mg(++) = 5 mM, creatine phosphate (CP) = 14.5 mM, creatinephosphokinase (CPK) = 1 mg/ml, total EGTA = 7 mM, CaCl(2), KCl, imidazole >/= 20 mM so that ionic strength = 0.15, pH = 7.00, and MgATP = 2 mM, 0.1 mM, or 20 microM. CP and CPK were necessary for these experiments as determined experimentally by their effect on the tension-Ca(++) relation, which was saturated for CP >/= 14.5 mM. This was interpreted to mean that sufficient CP was present to effectively buffer MgATP intracellularly. Decreasing MgATP shifts the tension-pCa curve to higher pCa (-log Ca(++)) so that, for half-maximal tension: pCa(1/2) = 4.5 for MgATP = 2 mM, pCa(1/2) = 5.1 for MgATP = 0.1 mM, and pCa(1/2) = 5.8 for MgATP = 20 microM; maximum isometric tension is the same in all cases, however. If MgATP was decreased to 1 microM, tension at Ga(++) > 10(-8) M was 84% of the maximum Ca(-+)-activated tension in 2 mM MgATP and increased only slightly to 90% for pCa = 4.5. Weber (1970, In The Physiology and Biochemistry of Muscle as Food, Volume 2, E. J. Briskey, R. G. Cassens, and B. B. Marsh, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wis.), using similar solutions, observed similar shifts in half-maximal calcium activation of rabbit myofibril ATPase rates. In explanation, Weber and Bremel (1971, In Contractility of Muscle Cells and Related Processes, R. J. Podolsky, editor, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Bremel and Weber, 1972, Nat. New Biol., 238:97) have described a mechanism whereby, at low ATP, "rigor complexes" are formed between myosin and thin filament actin and, in turn, alter the calcium affinity of one class of the two Ca(++)-binding sites on troponin, so that the thin filament is "turned on" for contraction at lower Ca(++) levels. Tension data from skinned fibers substantially supports this hypothesis. A stability constant for CaEGTA of 2.62 x 10(10) M(-1) was determined, with the help of F. N. Briggs, in solutions similar to those used for skinned fibers and was the same for 100 and 300 mM KCl.