Controlled Proteolysis Activates the Plasma Membrane Ca2+ Pump of Higher Plants (A Comparison with the Effect of Calmodulin in Plasma Membrane from Radish Seedlings)

The effects of calmodulin and of controlled trypsin treatments on the activity of the Ca2+ pump were investigated in plasma membrane purified from radish (Raphanus sativus L.) seedlings. Treatment of the plasma membrane with ethylenediaminetetra-acetate (EDTA), which removed about two-thirds of the plasma membrane-associated calmodulin, markedly increased the stimulation of the Ca2+ pump by calmodulin. In EDTA-treated plasma membrane, stimulation by calmodulin of the Ca2+ pump activity was maximal at low free Ca2+ (2-5 [mu]M) and decreased with the increase of free Ca2+ concentration. The Ca2+ pump activity was stimulated also by a controlled treatment of the plasma membrane with trypsin: the effect of trypsin treatment depended on the concentration of both trypsin and plasma membrane proteins and on the duration of incubation. Stimulation of the Ca2+ pump activity by trypsin treatment of the plasma membrane was similar to that induced by calmodulin both in extent and in dependence on the free Ca2+ concentration in the assay medium. Moreover, the Ca2+ pump of trypsin-treated plasma membrane was insensitive to further stimulation by calmodulin, suggesting that limited proteolysis preferentially cleaves a regulatory domain of the enzyme that is involved in its activation by calmodulin.