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*Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan;
Faculty of Social and Information Sciences, Nihon Fukushi University, Aichi, Japan; and
Laboratory of Molecular Enzymology, Faculty of Information Science and Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan
Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Makoto Suzuki, E-mail: msuzuki{at}argon.material.tohoku.ac.jp.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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diel)
2040 ps (
). In theory,
diel = 3
c (Bloomfield, 2002
, 1997a
c is the orientational correlation time (residence time, the average time that a water molecule spends bound at a protein site) for water molecules hydrating protein surfaces estimated by nuclear-magnetic resonance-related methods (Bellissent-Funel, 1999
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5%) in the number of S-1 hydrating water molecules. It was then suggested that hydration and its dynamic change in motor proteins may play an important role in the underlying mechanism of muscle contraction. At the time, however, little information was available on the hydration properties of actin. Such information is essential to argue the mechanism of chemomechanical energy transduction in terms of water dynamics in S1-actin interaction (Highsmith et al., 1996
In this study, we have extended the use of our dielectric method to actin solution. To achieve this, several difficulties had to be overcome in the recording of dielectric spectra, and the method of data analysis was elaborated. The results obtained indicate that the dielectric spectra of hydrated actin are distinct from those of proteins examined so far. In fact, it is virtually impossible to interpret the spectra without assuming that besides the lowered mobility of ordinary hydrating water, a component with much higher rotational mobility (fc
40 GHz) around the actin filaments (F-actin) exist. The dielectric exclusion volume is approximated to two-thirds of the molecular volume of globular monomer unit of F-actin (G-actin: Mr, 42.3 K). To check the validity of this finding, the dielectric spectra of solutions of urea and potassium-halides, KF, KCl, and KI were also measured. The hyper-mobile states of water are indeed induced in these solutions, which is consistent with well-known water-structure breaking effect of those solutes (Robinson et al., 1996
).
Experimental and theoretical studies (Hribar et al., 2002
; Tovchigrechko et al., 1999
) suggest that the charge density of solute and the balance of strength between water-solute interaction and water-water hydrogen bond are major factors affecting structure of water around solute ions and molecules. Taking this into account, we have offered an explanation for how F-actin may enhance the mobility of the surrounding water molecules on the basis of its characteristic double-helix structure consisting of G-actin subunits with a negative charge-rich molecular surface. The rotational mobility of water molecules around solute molecules is directly related to their diffusibility and this is critical to translational motion of proteins (Bloomfield, 2002
). Thus, a possible implication of the finding of the present study is also discussed in relation to chemomechanical energy transduction through interaction with myosin in the presence of ATP.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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(Sheterline et al., 1998
Dielectric spectroscopy and data analysis
All measurements were made in a conically shaped glass cell (total volume, 3.2 ml) connected to a microwave network analyzer at 20.0 ± 0.01°C (Agilent, Palo Alto, CA, 8720C-85070A). The frequency-dependent signals were converted into complex dielectric spectrum consisting of real and imaginary parts,
* =
' i
'' (Fig. 2). Noises inherent to the measuring system such as mismatching of cable-connectors as well as those from other sources and systematic interfering components were superimposed on the dielectric spectra. Thus, to overcome these noises the actual measurement and data processing were performed using the following three procedures. First, the spectra of the buffer
and protein solution
were measured in pairs
810x at a given protein concentration. The difference was taken for each pair (difference spectrum, protein solution vs. solvent buffer). The difference spectra obtained were then averaged and subjected to mathematical "smoothing" using fifth or higher order polynomial functions of log10f. This gave the difference dielectric spectrum of the protein solution consisting of real and imaginary parts (
*(f) = 
'(f) i
''(f)) with greatly reduced noise level (Fig. 3 a). Secondly, there is a small inevitable difference in the free concentrations of ions between buffer and protein solution due to the binding of ions to proteins. This affects the imaginary part of the spectrum (
''(f)) as an ionic conduction effect. This was corrected by subtracting 
/(2
0f) (
, the ionic conduction difference) from 
'' (Fig. 3 a). The value of Ds was empirically determined to bring the absolute value of 
'' at 0.2GHz within the range between 0 and 1.0 in the present work. This correction gave little influence on the values of 
' and 

in the frequency range between 2 and 20 GHz. Finally, the spectrum of the sample protein solution
was calculated by adding the difference spectrum (
*(f)) as estimated to the buffer spectrum
which had also been processed using the averaging and smoothing techniques described.
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was analyzed as previously described (Yokoyama et al., 2001
of the first and second shells were set by assuming a Debye-type relaxation function with relaxation frequencies fck and amplitudes
k as described in the following equations:
![]() | (1) |
![]() | (2) |
qinf1,
qinf2 were set to 5.6 assuming that the values are close to that of free water (Kaatze, 1990
was then calculated using
and
and the volume fraction of the double-shelled solute,
t, by the following equations derived from the method by Asami et al. (1980)
![]() | (3) |
and
are given by
![]() | (4) |
1 is the volume fraction of the first shell in the solution, and v is the volume fraction of the core ellipsoid. The values of fc1,
1, and
1 were determined as adjustable parameters by least-square fitting to the real part 
' in the frequency range between 2 and 10 GHz. Using this parameter set of the first Debye component, the second set of adjustable parameters, fc2,
2, and
2 was determined by least-square fitting taking into account the
2-effect on 
' for
1014 GHz, and the fc2-effect on 
'' for
1220 GHz. The entire set of parameters (fc1,
1,
1; fc2,
2,
2) thus obtained was used as the initial estimates for the second stage of fitting, which was repeated until no further improvement resulted. Thus, the total volume fraction of the hydrated solute
t (= v +
1 +
2) could be determined. Finally, assuming that F-actin solution is a one-solute/one-solvent system, the apparent dielectric constant of the double-shelled ellipsoid,
was calculated from the experimental values of
and the value of
t by the following equations:
![]() | (5) |
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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the imaginary part,
) in the low-salt buffer recorded after being introduced into the measuring cell (Fig. 2 a) were very similar to those of other globular proteins (Yokoyama et al., 2001
4 mg/ml, the extra actins assemble into filaments even at low ionic strengths (Sheterline et al., 1998
). The spectra were not substantially different from those recorded in the low-salt buffer. These observations also apply to the myoglobin spectra (Fig. 2 d).
A small but systematic difference between the dielectric spectra of the protein solution and the buffer seen over the frequency range investigated (Fig. 2) is a reflection of the difference in polarizability between the hydrated protein and the solvent. This is clearly shown in the difference spectra (Fig. 3 a: 
*(f)). The description from here onward is based on the analysis of the dielectric spectra, which was limited in the frequency range above 2 GHz for two reasons. First, the effect of ionic conduction difference between protein and buffer solutions could not be completely removed from the spectra in the lower frequency range. Second, some relaxation phenomena such as subdomain fluctuation of a large protein (Hayashi et al., 2000
) or orientation relaxation of molecular dipoles of amino acids (Suzuki et al., 1997a) were observed in the range <1 GHz. The effects of these relaxation irrelevant to the rotational mobility of water can be minimized, if not totally excluded, by the analysis in the frequency range >2 GHz.
As for the real-part spectrum, 
'(f), in the frequency range >2 GHz, actin stays below that of myoglobin up to 9 GHz, but then rises more steeply thereafter. Corresponding to this, the pattern of the actin imaginary part, 
''(f), is clearly distinct from that of myoglobin. It should be noted that both the 
' and 
'' values calculated at the different frequencies are proportional to the actin concentration (Fig. 3 c). The magnitudes of standard errors of both 
' and 
'' were in a range between 0.010 and 0.027.
Dielectric characterization of hydrated actin
In the spectrum of the hydrated solutes at frequencies >2 GHz (Fig. 4 a), the real-part
of the actin spectrum (circles) decreased gradually. Accompanying this change was a slow increase of the imaginary-part
whereas myoglobin (squares)
showed a broad but clear peak at 7 GHz. The actin spectra in the low (triangles) and high-salt (circles) buffers are similar (Fig. 4 b) but different from the myoglobin spectra (Fig. 4 c). Among the proteins other than actin examined so far (Yokoyama et al., 2001
), bovine serum albumin and ovalbumin showed the myoglobin-type spectra irrespective of the buffer used, i.e., low- or high-salt (data not shown). Thus, the dielectric characteristics of actin solution are genuine, and cannot be ascribed to an effect of ionic strength.
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Thus, a unique feature of actin hydration has emerged (Table 1). The number of water molecules for every G-actin unit in the first hydration shell (N1) is slightly excess to make the mono-layer covering the three-dimensional structure model of G-actin unit in F-actin (Lorenz et al., 1993
). The volume fraction of the second shell with a high fc is approximately two-thirds of the molecular volume of G-actin. Judging from its dielectric parameters, it seems almost impossible to postulate that any substance other than water could constitute this second shell. In this context, it seems appropriate to give a rough sketch of the hydration profile of F-actin. Assuming a filament as a straight cylinder with smooth surface, its radius would be 2.6 nm or 3.3 nm inclusive of the first hydration shell (see above). If the hyper-mobile water molecules were evenly distributed on the surface of cylinder, the overall radius could be 3.9 nm. However, such even distribution, which is most likely for the restrained water constituting the first hydration shell as judged from the linear relationship between Ntotal and Ncal (Fig. 1), is by no means realistic for the hyper-mobile water, because the molecular shape and chemical nature of the protein surface are very complex. In addition, it is not known yet where water molecules are hyper-mobilized on the actin surface (see below) or how they exchange with those of lower mobilities.
Hyper-mobile water around solute molecules
A state where water has a mobility higher than that of the bulk water (here we refer to as hyper-mobile water) was first hypothesized to explain hydration anomalies of some ions such as I- and Cs+. This effect has been referred to as water-structure breaking (Frank and Wen, 1957
) or negative hydration (Samoilov, 1957
). For diluted solution of urea (Tovchigrechko et al., 1999
) and solutions of alkali-halide salts (Collins, 1997
; Hribar et al., 2002
; Imai et al. 2002
), experimental and theoretical (computational) studies indicated that this effect was attributable to the charge density of the solute and the balance of strength between water-solute interaction and water-water hydrogen bond. We measured the dielectric spectrum of a urea solution (Fig. 6 a), which could only be explained assuming a dipole with an fc value of 30 GHz in addition to the low frequency component (fc = 6.5 GHz, probably the urea dipole itself and weakly restrained water together). Dielectric measurements and analysis were also made for solutions of potassium halide-salts, KF, KCl, and KI. The results were similar to those obtained for urea. Thus, I- and Cl- but not F- seemed to induce some high frequency component(s) and I- showed a much stronger effect (Fig. 6 b). Adopting the criterion that if the peak frequency of
is higher than 17 GHz, the solute is regarded as a water-structure breaker, the result is consistent with the order of strength of the structure-breaking effect obtained using other techniques (Robinson et al., 1996
). These results strongly support our dielectric method which has enabled us to reveal this unique hydration property of actin.
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Implication of hyper-mobile water in chemomechanical coupling
The diffusion coefficient of solute particles in water is inversely proportional to the viscosity of water, which is in a reciprocal relation with the rotational mobility of water molecules (Bloomfield, 2002
; Fabelinski
, 1997
). Thus, our results suggest that a unique hydration shell containing water components with high and low viscosity is formed around F-actin (Fig. 7 a). Since the effect is undoubtedly structure-dependent, it would most likely undergo compositional fluctuations upon interaction with a specific binding protein. The binding proteins would induce characteristic conformational changes in the G-actin unit (Sheterline et al., 1998
; Janmey et al., 2001
) and some such changes would be cooperatively propagated through a filament (Oosawa et al., 1973
; Orlova and Egelman, 1997
). Thus, it is conceivable that upon interaction with actin, certain binding proteins bring themselves in solvent space asymmetric in viscosity along the filament axis (Fig. 7 b). We propose that in muscle contraction, the energy resulting from ATP hydrolysis is ultimately converted into the viscosity anisotropy around each myosin interacting with the actin filament, which would facilitate the directional movement of myosin along the filament (Fig. 7 c). This offers an explanation for the key issue of the chemomechanical energy transduction: how the molecular motors work efficiently by breaking the symmetry of thermal motions of molecules even though the energy input only marginally exceeds the thermal energy.
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| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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This work was supported by Grant in Aid #11167203 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
Submitted on May 27, 2003; accepted for publication August 8, 2003.
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