Characterisation of Fast, Slow and Cardiac Muscle Tropomyosins from Salmonid Fish

Tropomyosin (TM) has been isolated from the cardiac muscle, and fast and slow trunk (myotomal) muscles of the mature salmonid fish Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri). When examined electrophoretically, isoforms of TM were detected which were specific, and exclusive, to each type of muscle. Cardiac and fast muscles contained single and distinct isoforms, while slow muscle contained two distinct isoforms, closely related in terms of apparent Mr and pI. There was no detectable difference between the same TM type from either salmon or trout. On a variety of gel systems, the cardiac and slow isoforms migrated in close proximity to each other and to rabbit α‐TM. The fast isoform comigrated with rabbit β‐TM. In developing salmon fry, a more acidic (unphosphorylated) variant of TM was present in addition to, and of similar Mr to, the fast adult isoform. This TM declined in steady‐state level during maturation and was virtually undetected in adult muscle. All of the isolated TMs contained little or no covalently bound phosphate and were blocked at the N‐terminus. The amino acids released by carboxypeptidase A, when ordered to give maximal similarity to other muscle TMs, were consistent with the following sequences: fast (LDNALNDMTSI) and cardiac (LDHALNDMTSL). The C‐terminal region of the slow TM contained His but was heterogeneous. In viscosity measurements, performed as a function of increasing protein concentration, at low ionic strength (t= 5°C, pH 7.00), fast TM exhibited the highest relative viscosity values. Lower and equivalent levels of polymerisation occurred with the cardiac and slow TMs. Polymerisation of all three isoforms was temperature‐dependent, with cardiac TM being least sensitive and fast TM being most sensitive. Determination of the complete coding sequence of adult fast TM confirmed the findings of the carboxypeptidase analysis, but the remainder of the sequence more closely resembled α‐type TMs than β‐type TMs. Overall, salmon fast TM contains 20 (mostly conservative) substitutions compared to rabbit striated muscle α‐TM and 40 (mostly conservative) substitutions compared to rabbit striated muscle β‐TM. This demonstrates that electrophoretic mobility is not, in all instances, a suitable method to assess the isomorphic nature of striated muscle TMs.