Developmental Changes in the Structure and Kinetic Properties of Myosin Adenosinetriphosphatase of Rabbit Skeletal Fast Muscle

Abstract

Structural and functional changes in myosin of fast muscles during early post-natal development were studied to seek correlations with well-known physiological changes in the contraction rate. The findings were as follows:
1. It is known that fetal fast muscle myosin contains three kinds of light chains. It was confirmed that their molecular weights were the same as those of adult fast muscle myosin, but different from those of adult slow muscle myosin. The amount of the smallest light chain, g₃, was confirmed to increase markedly during the postnatal period.
2. The ATPase [EC 3. 6. 1. 3] activity of fetal fast muscle myosin (-1 day) was found to be about 50% of that of adult myosin. The pH-activity curve of fetal myosin ATPase was confirmed to be similar to that of adult myosin.
3. The rate of formation of the reactive myosin-phosphate-ADP complex, M^ADP_P, was found not to change during post-natal development.
4. It was found that the rate of decomposition of M^ADP_P in the presence of F-actin increased markedly during the post-natal period, and that the rate of decomposition of the complex of fetal myosin was only 1/6 to 1/4 of that of adult myosin. The change in the actomyosin ATPase activity was found to be closely correlated with the increase in the g₃ content during development.