Single‐Molecule Investigation of Load‐Dependent Actomyosin Dissociation Kinetics for Cardiac and Slow Skeletal Myosin

Abstract Myosins are ATP‐powered, force‐generating motor proteins involved in cardiac and muscle contraction. The external load experienced by the myosins modulates and coordinates their function in vivo. Here, this study investigates the tension‐sensing mechanisms of rabbit native β‐cardiac myosin (βM‐II) and slow skeletal myosins (SolM‐II) that perform in different physiological settings. Using mobile optical tweezers with a square wave‐scanning mode, a range of external assisting and resisting loads from 0 to 15 pN is exerted on single myosin molecules as they interact with the actin filament. Influenced of load on specific strongly‐bound states in the cross‐bridge cycle is examined by adjusting the [ATP]. The results implies that the detachment kinetics of actomyosin ADP.Pi strongly‐bound force‐generating state are load sensitive. Low assisting load accelerates, while the resisting load hinders the actomyosin detachment, presumably, by slowing both the Pi and ADP release. However, under both high assisting and resisting load, the rate of actomyosin dissociation decelerates. The transition from actomyosin ADP.Pi to ADP state appears to occur with a higher probability for βM‐II than SolM‐II. This study interpret that dissociation of at least three strongly‐bound actomyosin states are load‐sensitive and may contribute to functional diversity among different myosins.