Abstract
A contact interaction is proposed to exist between the voltage sensor
of the transverse tubular membrane of skeletal muscle and the calcium
release channel of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. This interaction is
given a quantitative formulation inspired in the Monod, Wyman, and
Changeux model of allosteric transitions in hemoglobin (Monod, J.,
J. Wyman, and J.-P. Changeux. 1965. Journal of Molecular Biology.
12:88-118), and analogous to one proposed by Marks and Jones for
voltage-dependent Ca channels (Marks, T. N., and S. W. Jones. 1992.
Journal of General Physiology. 99:367-390). The allosteric protein
is the calcium release channel, a homotetramer, with two accessible
states, closed and open. The kinetics and equilibrium of this transition
are modulated by voltage sensors (dihydropyridine receptors) pictured
as four units per release channel, each undergoing independent voltage-driven
transitions between two states (resting and activating). For each
voltage sensor that moves to the activating state, the tendency of
the channel to open increases by an equal (large) factor. The equilibrium
and kinetic equations of the model are solved and shown to reproduce
well a number of experimentally measured relationships including:
charge movement (Q) vs. voltage, open probability of the release
channel (Po) vs. voltage, the transfer function relationship Po vs.
Q, and the kinetics of charge movement, release activation, and deactivation.
The main consequence of the assumption of allosteric coupling is
that primary effects on the release channel are transmitted backward
to the voltage sensor and give secondary effects. Thus, the model
reproduces well the effects of perchlorate, described in the two
previous articles, under the assumption that the primary effect is
to increase the intrinsic tendency of the release channel to open,
with no direct effects on the voltage sensor. This modification of
the open-closed equilibrium of the release channel causes a shift
in the equilibrium dependency of charge movement with voltage. The
paradoxical slowing of charge movement by perchlorate also results
from reciprocal effects of the channel on the allosterically coupled
voltage sensors. The observations of the previous articles plus the
simulations in this article constitute functional evidence of allosteric
transmission.
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