A Novel Mutant Cardiac Troponin C Disrupts Molecular Motions Critical for Calcium Binding Affinity and Cardiomyocyte Contractility

Author(s) Chee Chew Lim, Haijun Yang, Mingfeng Yang, Chien-Kao Wang, Jianru Shi, Eric A. Berg, David R. Pimentel, Judith K. Gwathmey, Roger J. Hajjar, Michiel Helmes, Catherine E. Costello, Shuanghong Huo, and Ronglih Liao
Journal Biophys. J., May 2008; 94: 3577 - 3589.

Method Extract

...Cardiovascular Research Center, Charlestown, Massachusetts; IonOptix Europe, Wageningen, the Netherlands; and Cardiovascular...real-time using specialized acquisition and analysis software (IonOptix Corp., Milton, MA). A single myocyte was selected and exclusively...

Abstract

Troponin C (TnC) belongs to the superfamily of EF-hand (helix–loop–helix) Ca2+-binding proteins and is an essential component of the regulatory thin filament complex. In a patient diagnosed with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, we identified two novel missense mutations localized in the regulatory Ca2+-binding Site II of TnC, TnC(E59D,D75Y). Expression of recombinant TnC(E59D,D75Y) in isolated rat cardiomyocytes induced a marked decrease in contractility despite normal intracellular calcium homeostasis in intact cardiomyocytes and resulted in impaired myofilament calcium responsiveness in Triton-permeabilized cardiomyocytes. Expression of the individual mutants in cardiomyocytes showed that TnCD75Y was able to recapitulate the TnC(E59D,D75Y) phenotype, whereas TnCE59D was functionally benign. Force-pCa relationships in TnC(E59D,D75Y) reconstituted rabbit psoas fibers and fluorescence spectroscopy of TnC(E59D,D75Y) labeled with 2-[(4'-iodoacetamide)-aniline]naphthalene-6-sulfonic acid showed a decrease in myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity and Ca2+ binding affinity, respectively. Furthermore, computational analysis of TnC showed the Ca2+-binding pocket as an active region of concerted motions, which are decreased markedly by mutation D75Y. We conclude that D75Y interferes with proper concerted motions within the regulatory Ca2+-binding pocket of TnC that hinders the relay of the thin filament calcium signal, thereby providing a primary stimulus for impaired cardiomyocyte contractility. This in turn may trigger pathways leading to aberrant ventricular remodeling and ultimately a dilated cardiomyopathy phenotype.



Keywords calcium, ionwizard
Our Ref: 1632