title: Purification and characterization of calponin phosphatase from smooth muscle. Effect of dephosphorylation on calponin function.
abstract: Calponin, a thin-filament protein of smooth muscle, has been implicated in the regulation of smooth-muscle contraction, since in vitro the isolated protein inhibits the actin-activated myosin MgATPase. This inhibitory effect, and the ability of calponin to bind to actin, is lost after its phosphorylation by protein kinase C or Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II [Winder & Walsh (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 10148-10155]. If this phosphorylation reaction is of physiological significance, there must be a protein phosphatase in smooth muscle capable of dephosphorylating calponin and restoring its inhibitory effect on the actomyosin MgATPase. We demonstrate here the presence, in chicken gizzard smooth muscle, of a single major phosphatase activity directed towards calponin. This phosphatase was purified from the soluble fraction of chicken gizzard by (NH4)2SO4 fractionation and sequential chromatography on Sephacryl S-300, DEAE-Sephacel, omega-amino-octyl-agarose and thiophosphorylated myosin 20 kDa light-chain-Sepharose columns. The purified phosphatase contained three polypeptide chains of 60, 55 and 38 kDa which were shown to be identical with the subunits of SMP-I, a smooth-muscle phosphatase capable of dephosphorylating the isolated 20 kDa light chain of myosin but not intact myosin [Pato & Adelstein (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 7047-7054]. Consistent with its identity with SMP-I, calponin phosphatase was classified as a type-2A protein phosphatase. Of several potential phosphoprotein substrates examined, calponin proved to be kinetically the best, suggesting that calponin may be a physiological substrate for this phosphatase. Finally, dephosphorylation of calponin which had been phosphorylated by protein kinase C restored completely its ability to inhibit the actin-activated MgATPase of smooth-muscle myosin. These observations support the hypothesis that calponin plays a role in regulating the contractile state of smooth muscle and that this function in turn is controlled by phosphorylation-dephosphorylation.
authors.affiliation: MRC Group in Signal Transduction, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Winder
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Pato
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Walsh
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D017301:Ca(2+) Mg(2+)-ATPase / Q000378:metabolism; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002645:Chickens; D002846:Chromatography, Affinity; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004988:Ethers, Cyclic / Q000494:pharmacology; D005895:Gizzard, Avian / Q000201:enzymology; D007700:Kinetics; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009130:Muscle, Smooth / Q000201:enzymology*; D043263:Myosin-Light-Chain Phosphatase; D019319:Okadaic Acid; D010749:Phosphoprotein Phosphatases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D010766:Phosphorylation; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D000096985:Calponins
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D017301:Ca(2+) Mg(2+)-ATPase; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D004988:Ethers, Cyclic; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D009124:Muscle Proteins; D043263:Myosin-Light-Chain Phosphatase; D019319:Okadaic Acid; D010749:Phosphoprotein Phosphatases; D000096985:Calponins