Abstract
Actin, myosin, and a high molecular weight actin-binding protein were purified from chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) leukocytes. CML leukocyte actin resembled skeletal muscle and other cytoplasmic actins by its subunit molecular weight, by its ability to polymerize in the presence of salts, and to activate the Mg2+-ATPase activity of rabbit skeletal muscle myosin. CML leukocyte myosin was similar to other vertebrate cytoplasmic myosins in having heavy chains and two light subunits. However, its apparent heavy-chain molecular weight and Stokes radius suggested that it was variably degraded during purification. Purified CML leukocyte myosin had average specific EDTA- AND Ca2+-activated ATPase activities of 125 and 151 nmol Pi released/mg protein per min, respectively and low specific Mg2+-ATPase activity. The Mg2+-ATPase activity of CML myosin was increased 200-fold by rabbit skeletal muscle F-actin, but the specific activity relative to that of actin-activated rabbit skeletal muscle myosin was low. CML leukocyte myosin, like other vertebrate cytoplasmic myosins, formed filaments in 0.1 M KCl solutions. Reduced and denatured CML leukocyte-actin-binding protein had a single high molecular weight subunit like a recently described actin-binding protein of rabbit pulmonary macrophages which promotes the polymerization and gelation of actin. Cytoplasmic extracts of CML leukocytes prepared with ice-cold 0.34-M sucrose solutions containing Mg2+-ATP, dithiothreitol, and EDTA at pH 7.0 underwent rapid gelation when warmed to 25 degrees C. Initially, the gel could be liquified by cooling to ice-bath temperature. With time, warmed cytoplasmic extract gels shrunk ("contracted") into aggregates. The following findings indicated that CML leukocyte actin-binding protein promoted the temperature-dependent gelation of actin in the cytoplasmic extracts and that CML leukocyte myosin was involved in the contraction of the actin gels: (a) Cytoplasmic extract gels initially contained actin as their major polypeptide component and consistent of tangled thin filaments; (b) Contracted aggregates of cytoplasmic extract gels contained by large quantities of myosin as well as actin; (c) Purified actin-binding protein underwent a temperature-dependent, reversible aggregation and caused low concentrations of purified muscle or CML leukocyte actins to gel in sucrose solutions; (d) The gels formed from purified actin plus purified actin-binding protein slowly contracted in the presence but not in the absence of purified CML leukocyte myosin; (e) Rabbit antiserum against purified CML leukocyte actin-binding protein but not against purified CML leukocyte myosin inhibited the gelation of warmed CML leukocyte extracts. Antiserum against CML leukocyte myosin had no effect on the gelation of CML leukocyte extracts but partially curtailed the contraction of the CML leukocyte extract gels and of gels formed from purified CML leukocyte actin-binding protein plus rabbit skeletal muscle actin.