cDNA cloning and characterization of temperature-acclimation-associated light meromyosins from grass carp fast skeletal muscle

The three types of cDNA clones, previously defined as the 10 °C, intermediate and 30 °C-types [Tao, Y., Kobayashi, M., Liang, C.S., Okamoto, T., Watabe, S., 2004. Temperature-dependent expression patterns of grass carp fast skeletal myosin heavy chain genes. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B 139, 649–656], were determined for their 5′-regions which encoded at least the C-terminal half of myosin rod, light meromyosin (LMM), in fast skeletal muscles of grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella. The deduced amino acid sequence identity was 91.1% between the 10 °C and 30 °C-types and 91.4% between the 10 °C and intermediate-types, whereas a high sequence identity of 97.8% was found between the intermediate and 30 °C-types. These three grass carp LMMs all had a characteristic seven-residue (heptad) repeat (a, b, c, d, e, f, g)n, where positions a and d were normally occupied by hydrophobic residues, and positions b, c and f by charged residues. However, the ratios of hydrophobic residues to the total were higher for the intermediate- and 30 °C- than 10 °C-type LMM, suggesting that the former both types may form more stable coiled-coils of α-helices than the latter type. These differences in the primary structures of LMM isoforms might be partially implicated in differences in the thermostabilities and gel-forming profiles of myosins from grass carp in different seasons reported previously [Tao, Y., Kobayashi, M., Fukushima, H., Watabe, S., 2005. Changes in enzymatic and structural properties of grass carp fast skeletal myosin induced by the laboratory-conditioned thermal acclimation and seasonal acclimatization. Fish. Sci. 71, 195–204; Tao, Y., Kobayashi, M., Fukushima, H., Watabe, S., 2007. Changes in rheological properties of grass carp fast skeletal myosin induced by seasonal acclimatization. Fish. Sci. 73, 189–196].