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Interaction of smooth-muscle calponin and desmin was analyzed by means of ultracentrifugation, fluorescent spectroscopy and affinity chromatography. At low and intermediate ionic strength (30-50 mM NaCl) calponin is cosedimented with desmin with an apparent dissociation constant 3-15 microM and stoichiometry of 1 calponin/4-6 desmin. Calmodulin decreases the quantity of calponin bound to desmin. Increase of ionic strength up to 150 mM weakens calponin-desmin interaction, but even at this ionic strength part of calponin remains bound to desmin. Calponin increases the rate and extent of fluorescence quenching induced by polymerization of 5-iodoacetamidofluorescein-labeled desmin. Affinity chromatography data indicate that desmin-binding sites are located in the N-terminal 22 kDa fragment of calponin. Since calponin interacts with desmin with an affinity comparable with that of, e.g., tropomyosin and myosin we suppose that calponin-desmin interaction may be important for cytoskeleton organization.

The low ionic strength structures of the type III intermediate filament (IF) proteins desmin and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) have been studied by transient electric birefringence measurements. Flexible dimers with a length of around 45 nm, particles with a length of 68 +/- 6 nm (presumably tetramers and hexamers) and larger aggregates of 108 +/- 19 nm are found. GFAP has an increased tendency to aggregate upon lowering of the pH. The aggregation state of desmin does not change in the pH range studied. The results are compared with previous results on vimentin.

Filaments formed by desmin, the myogenic intermediate filament protein, were crosslinked with the lysine specific crosslinker DST (disuccinimidyl tartrate; 0.64 nm span) and three DST crosslinked peptides were characterized. Two correspond to crosslinks previously obtained with the longer crosslinker EGS (ethylene glycol bis(succinimidylsuccinate), 1.61 nm span) which defined the antiparallel on-stagger relationship of neighbouring coiled coils. The two DST crosslinks now provide the relative positions of the coiled coils within a limit of about 9 alpha-helical residues. The third DST crosslink most likely connecting two helices of a single coiled coil gives a direct measure of the distance spanned in DST crosslinks.