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D R Mitchell

Publications and source records attributed to D R Mitchell.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Polarity of dynein-microtubule interactions in vitro: cross-bridging between parallel and antiparallel microtubules.

Ciliary doublet microtubules produced by sliding disintegration in 20 muM MgATP2-reassociate in the presence of exogenous 30S dynein and 6 mM MgSO4. The doublets form overlapping arrays, held together by dynein cross-bridges. Dynein arms on both A and B subfibers serve as unambiguous markers of microtubule polarity within the arrays. Doublets reassociate via dynein cross-bridges in both parallel and antiparallel modes, although parallel interactions are favored 2:1. When 20 muM ATP is added to the arrays, the doublets undergo both vanadate-sensitive and insensitive forms of secondary disintegration to reproduce the original population of doublets. The results demonstrate that both parallel and antiparallel doublet cross-bridging is sensitive to dissociation by ATP even though normal ciliary motion depends strictly on dynein interactions between parallel microtubules.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

Interactions of dynein arms with b subfibers of Tetrahymena cilia: quantitation of the effects of magnesium and adenosine triphosphate.

Tetrahymena 30S dynein was extracted with 0.5 M KCl and tested for retention of several functional properties associated wtih its in situ force-generating capacity. The dynein fraction will rebind to extracted outer doublets in the presence of Mg2+ to restore dynein arms. The arms attach at one end to the A subfiber and form bridges at the other end to the B subfiber of an adjacent doublet. Recombined arms retain an ATPase activity that remains coupled to potential generation of interdoublet sliding forces. To examine important aspects of the dynein-tubulin interaction that we presume are directly related to the dynein force-generating cross-bridge cycle, a simple and quantitative spectrophotometric assay was devised for monitoring the associations between isolated 30S dynein and the B subfiber. Utilizing this assay, the binding of dynein to B subfibers was found to be dependent upon divalent cations, saturating at 3 mM Mg2+. Micromolar concentrations of MgATP2- cause the release of dynein from the B subfiber; however, not all of the dynein bound under these conditions is released by ATP. ATP-insensitive dynein binding results from dynein interactions with non-B-tubule sites on outer-doublet and central-pair microtubules and from ATP-insensitive binding to sites on the B subfiber. Vanadate over a wide concentration range (10(-6)-10(-3) M) has no effect on the Mg2+-induced binding of dynein or its release by MgATP2-, and was used to inhibit secondary doublet disintegration in the suspensions. In the presence of 10 microM vanadate, dynein is maximally dissociated by MgATP2- concentrations greater than or equal to 1 microM with half-maximal release at 0.2 microM. These binding properties of isolated dynein arms closely resemble the cross-bridging behavior of in situ dynein arms reported previously, suggesting that quantitative studies such as those presented here may yield reliable information concerning the mechanism of force generation in dynein-microtubule motile systems. The results also suggest that vanadate may interact with an enzyme-product complex that has a low affinity for tubulin.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

Effects of divalent cations on dynein cross bridging and ciliary microtubule sliding.

We recently demonstrated that addition of the divalent cation Mg++ to demembranated cilia causes the dynein arms to attach uniformly to the B subfibers. We have now studied the dose-dependent relationship between Mg++ or Ca++ and dynein bridging frequencies and microtubule sliding in cilia isolated from Tetrahymena. Both cations promote efficient dynein bridging. Mg++-induced bridges become saturated at 3 mM while Ca++-induced bridges become saturated at 2 mM. Double reciprocal plots of percent bridging vs. the cation concentration (0.05-10 mM) suggest that bridging occurs in simple equilibrium with the cation concentration. When microtubule sliding (spontaneous disintegration in 40 mM N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ethane sulfonic acid (HEPES), 0.1 mM ATP at pH 7.4) is assayed (A350 nm) relative to the Mg++ or Ca++ concentration, important differential effects are observed. 100% Disintegration occurs in 0.5-2 mM Mg++ and the addition of 10 mM Mg++ does not inhibit the response. The addition of 0.05-10 mM Ca++ to cilia reactivated with 0.1 mM ATP causes a substantial reduction in disintegration at low Ca++ concentrations and complete inhibition at concentrations greater than 3 mM. When Ca++ is added to cilia reactivated with 2 mM Mg++ and 0.1 mM ATP, the percent disintegration decreases progressively with the increasing Ca++ concentration. The addition of variable concentrations of Co++ to Mg++-activated cilia causes a similar but more effective inhibition of the disintegration response. These observations, when coupled with the relatively high concentrations of Ca++ or Co++ needed to inhibit disintegration, suggest that inhibition results from simple competition for the relevant cation-binding sites and thus may not be physiologically significant. The data do not yet reveal an interpretable relationship between percent disintegration, percent dynein bridging, and percent ATPase activity of both isolated dynein and whole cilia. However, they do illustrate that considerable (sliding) disintegration (60%) can occur under conditions that reveal only 10-15% attached dynein cross bridges.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

Structural conformation of ciliary dynein arms and the generation of sliding forces in Tetrahymena cilia.

The sliding tubule model of ciliary motion requires that active sliding of microtubules occur by cyclic cross-bridging of the dynein arms. When isolated, demembranated Tetrahymena cilia are allowed to spontaneously disintegrate in the presence of ATP, the structural conformation of the dynein arms can be clearly resolved by negative contrast electron microscopy. The arms consist of three structural subunits that occur in two basic conformations with respect to the adjacent B subfiber. The inactive conformation occurs in the absence of ATP and is characterized by a uniform, 32 degrees base-directed polarity of the arms. Inactive arms are not attached to the B subfiber of adjacent doublets. The bridged conformation occurs strictly in the presence of ATP and is characterized by arms having the same polarity as inactive arms, but the terminal subunit of the arms has become attached to the B subfiber. In most instances the bridged conformation is accompanied by substantial tip-directed sliding displacement of the bridged doublets. Because the base-directed polarity of the bridged arms is opposite to the direction required for force generation in these cilia and because the bridges occur in the presence of ATP, it is suggested that the bridged conformation may represent the initial attachment phase of the dynein cross-bridge cycle. The force-generating phase of the cycle would then require a tip-directed deflection of the arm subunit attached to the B subfiber.

Animals↗