Excitation–contraction coupling changes during postnatal cardiac development

Cardiac contraction is initiated by the release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores in response to an action potential, in a process known as “excitation–contraction coupling” (ECC). Here we investigate the maturation of ECC in the rat heart during postnatal development. We provide new information on how proteins of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and the t-tubules (TTs) assemble to form the structures that support EC coupling during postnatal development. We show that the surface membrane protein, caveolin-3 (Cav3), is a good protein marker for TTs in ventricular myocytes and compared it quantitatively to junctophilin-2 (JP2), a protein found on the SR at sites of SR-TT junctions, or couplons. Although JP2 and Cav3 associate primarily with the SR and TTs, respectively, we found that they occupy the appropriate sites at maturing structures in synchrony, as visualized with high resolution, quantitative 3-dimensional imaging. We also found the surprising result that while both ryanodine receptor type 2, (RyR2) and JP2 proteins are localized to the same membrane and sub-compartments, they assume their positions at very different rates: RyR2 moves to the SR membrane at the Z-disc very early in development while JP2 only appears in the SR membrane as the TTs mature. Our data suggest that, although RyR2 appears to be prepositioned at the sites ultimately occupied by dyad junctions, JP2 arrives at these sites in synchrony with the development of the TTs at the Z-discs. Finally, we report that EC coupling efficiency changes with development, in concert with these structural changes. Thus we provide the first well-integrated information that links the developing organization of proteins underlying EC coupling (RyR2, DHPR, Cav3 and JP2) to the developing efficacy of EC coupling.