Abstract
Myosin phosphorylation plays an important part in excitation–contraction coupling in smooth muscle. Phosphorylation by a Ca2+, calmodulin-dependent kinase stimulates the actin-activated Mg2+-ATPase activity of smooth muscle myosin1–5, suggesting that myosin phosphorylation regulates smooth muscle contraction (see refs 5, 6 for discussions of alternative hypotheses). This hypothesis is supported by evidence that myosin is phosphorylated during contraction and dephosphorylated during relaxation of intact smooth muscles stimulated with a single agonist concentration7–9. However, there is little information regarding the response to stimulation with various agonist concentrations. As the dose–response relationships for phosphorylation and tension should be similar if myosin phosphorylation does, in fact, regulate smooth muscle contraction, we studied myosin phosphorylation in tracheal smooth muscle stimulated with a broad range of concentrations of the cholinergic agonist, methacholine. The results of these experiments are consistent with the hypothesis that myosin phosphorylation regulates smooth muscle contraction but they indicate a relatively complex relationship between myosin phosphorylation and the generation of isometric tension.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gorecka, A., Aksoy, M. O. & Hartshorne, D. J. Biochem. biophys. Res. Commun. 71, 325–331 (1976).
Sobieszek, A. Eur. J. Biochem. 73, 477–483 (1977).
Dabrowska, R., Sherry, J. M. F., Aromatorio, D. K. & Hartshorne, D. J. Biochemistry 17, 253–258 (1978).
Sellers, J. R., Pato, M. D. & Adelstein, R. S. J. biol Chem. 256, 13137–13142 (1981).
Chacko, S. & Rosenfeld, A. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 292–286 (1982).
Ebashi, S. Proc. R. Soc. B207, 259–296 (1980).
Barron, J. T., Barany, M., Barany, K. & Storti, R. V. J. biol. Chem. 255, 6238–6244 (1980).
de Lanerolle, P. & Stull, J. T. J. biol. Chem. 255, 9993–10000 (1980).
Janis, R. A., Barany, K., Barany, M. & Sarmiento, J. G. Molec. Physiol. 1, 3–11 (1981).
Dillon, P. F., Aksoy, M. O., Driska, S. P. & Murphy, R. A. Science 211, 495–497 (1981).
Askoy, M. O., Murphy, R. A. & Kamm, K. E. Am. J. Physiol. 242, C109–C116 (1982).
Somlyo, A. V., Butler, T. M., Bond, M. & Somlyo, A. P. Nature 294, 567–569 (1981).
Persechini, A. & Hartshorne, D. J. Science 213, 1383–1385 (1981).
Fay, F. S., Shlevin, H. H., Granger, W. C. Jr & Taylor, S. R. Nature 280, 506–508 (1979).
Neering, I. R. & Morgan, K. G. Nature 288, 585–587 (1980).
Tsien, R. Y., Pozzan, T. & Rink, T. J. Nature 295, 68–71 (1982).
Bolton, T. B. Physiol. Rev. 59, 606–718 (1979).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Lanerolle, P., Condit, J., Tanenbaum, M. et al. Myosin phosphorylation, agonist concentration and contraction of tracheal smooth muscle. Nature 298, 871–872 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/298871a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/298871a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Okadaic acid, a phosphatase inhibitor, produces a Ca2+ and calmodulin-independent contraction of smooth muscle
Pflügers Archiv (1989)
-
Apparent dissociation between myosin light chain phosphorylation and maximal velocity of shortening in KCl depolarized swine carotid artery: effect of temperature and KCl concentration
Pfl�gers Archiv European Journal of Physiology (1987)
-
Re-acceleration of the down-regulated contraction kinetics in the rat tracheal smooth muscle
Pflügers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology (1987)