Plasma membrane calcium pump activity is affected by the membrane protein concentration. Evidence for the involvement of the actin cytoskeleton

Plasma membrane calcium pumps (PMCAs) are integral membrane proteins that actively expel Ca 2+ from the cell. Specific Ca 2+ -ATPase activity of erythrocyte membranes increased steeply up to 1.5–5 times when the membrane protein concentration decreased from 50 μg/ml to 1 μg/ml. The activation by dilution was also observed for ATP-dependent Ca 2+ uptake into vesicles from Sf9 cells over-expressing the PMCA 4b isoform, confirming that it is a property of the PMCA. Dilution of the protein did not modify the activation by ATP, Ca 2+ or Ca 2+ -calmodulin. Treatment with non-ionic detergents did not abolish the dilution effect, suggesting that it was not due to resealing of the membrane vesicles. Pre-incubation of erythrocyte membranes with Cytochalasin D under conditions that promote actin polymerization abolished the dilution effect. Highly-purified, micellar PMCA showed no dilution effect and was not affected by Cytochalasin D. Taken together, these results suggest that the concentration-dependent behavior of the PMCA activity was due to interactions with cytoskeletal proteins. The dilution effect was also observed with different PMCA isoforms, indicating that this is a general phenomenon for all PMCAs.