The role of interhelical ionic interactions in myosin rod assembly

Interhelical electrostatic interactions at specific heptad positions can regulate dimerization specificity of alpha-helical coiled-coils. We have analyzed 20 vertebrate myosin sequences from a variety of organisms and tissues in order to determine if interhelical ionic interactions correlate with the observed myosin dimerization speci ficity. We find that the sites for potential interhelical ion pairing are identical in virtually all sarcomeric myosins whether they form home-or heterodimers. We also show that smooth muscle and non-muscle myosin rod sequences exhibit a different conserved pattern of potential interhelical ion pairing. These observations suggest that myosin rod residues involved in interhelical electrostatic interactions do not regulate dimerization specificity, but may contribute to the specific arrangements of myosin molecules that determine differences in the filament morphology of sarcomeric and non-sarcomeric muscles. (C) 1998 Academic Press.