title: Properties of the spectrin-like structural element of smooth-muscle alpha-actinin.
abstract: The fragment of smooth muscle alpha-actinin, comprising the four spectrin-like structural repeating units, has a high alpha-helix content, similar to that of spectrin, and a hydrodynamic frictional coefficient, indicative of an elongated, probably bent or kinked rod-like structure, as found for spectrin dimer and tetramer. The fragment exists in solution as an extremely stable dimer, which is dissociated only under denaturing conditions and is much more resistant to dissociation by urea than is the spectrin heterodimer. High-resolution proton magnetic resonance spectra reveal that a part of the polypeptide chain gives rise to sharp resonances; this is also true of spectrin and it implies that the individual structural repeating units contain segmentally mobile elements, which may be required to generate the elastic properties of the spectrin family of proteins. Again like spectrin, the alpha-actinin fragment contains multiple binding sites for long-chain fatty acids, as revealed by quenching of tryptophan fluorescence by 2-bromostearate (though not by 9(10)-bromostearate). The results point to extensive structural and functional similarities between the repeating units of all the proteins of the spectrin family.
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council Muscle and Cell Motility Unit, King's College, London, England.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kahana
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Gratzer
mesh_terms: D000185:Actinin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D013049:Spectrin
chemical_list: D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D005227:Fatty Acids; D000185:Actinin; D013049:Spectrin