INTERACTION OF THE LOW-MOLECULAR-MASS, GUANINE-NUCLEOTIDE-BINDING PROTEIN WITH THE ACTIN-BINDING PROTEIN AND ITS MODULATION BY THE CAMP-DEPENDENT PROTEIN-KINASE IN BOVINE PLATELETS

Platelets have been shown to possess several, different, low-molecular-mass, guanine-nucleotide-binding proteins (G-proteins) with molecular masses about 20 - 30 kDa. We report here that a 25-kDa G-protein copurified with the bovine platelet actin-binding protein (ABP), a cross-linker of actin filaments which is known to generate the three-dimensional network of actin. Both the G-protein and ABP were recovered in a fraction that was insoluble in Triton X-100 and were extracted in 0.6 M NaCl. Gel-filtration chromatography of the high-salt extract and rechromatography in a low-salt solution indicated that the two proteins may be associated with each other. The association of the two proteins was suggested by cosedimentation of the G-protein with the actin gel formed by actin and ABP. The amounts of the cosedimented G-protein and ABP was unaffected by guanosine-5'-O-[beta-thio]diphosphate and guanosine-5'-O-[gamma-thio]triphosphate, but the G-protein, not ABP, was partially released from the actin gel by phosphorylating ABP with cAMP-dependent protein kinase. Thus, the association of the two proteins was affected by modification of ABP, but not by modification of G-proteins. The physiological significance of the possible association of the two proteins might be that the membrane skeleton functions as a modulator of the G-protein, rather than that the G-protein modulates the function of the membrane skeleton which comprises ABP.