The ability of myosin subfragment 1 to interact with monomeric actin complexed to sequesteringproteins was tested by a number of different techniques such as affinity absorption, chemical cross-linking, fluorescence titration, and competition procedures. For affinity absorption, actin was attached toagarose immobilized DNase I. Both chymotryptic subfragment 1 isoforms (S1A1 and S1A2) were retainedby this affinity matrix. Fluorescence titration employing pyrenyl-actin in complex with deoxyribonucleaseI (DNase I) or thymosin
4 demonstrated S1 binding to these actin complexes. A
KD of 5 × 10
-8 M forS1A1 binding to the actin-DNase I complex was determined. Fluorescence titration did not indicatebinding of S1 to actin in complex with gelsolin segment 1 (G1) or vitamin D-binding protein (DBP).However, fluorescence competition experiments and analysis of tryptic cleavage patterns of S1 indicatedits interaction with actin in complex with DBP or G1. Formation of the ternary DNase I-acto-S1 complexwas directly demonstrated by sucrose density sedimentation. S1 binding to G-actin was found to be sensitiveto ATP and an increase in ionic strength. Actin fixed in its monomeric state by DNase I was unable tosignificantly stimulate the Mg
2+-dependent S1-ATPase activity. Both wild-type and a mutant of
Dictyostelium discoideum myosin II subfragment 1 containing 12 additional lysine residues within aninsertion of 20 residues into loop 2 (K12/20-Q532E) were found to also interact with actin-DNase Icomplex. Binding of the K12/20-Q532E mutant to the actin-DNase I complex occurred with higheraffinity than wild-type S1 and was less sensitive to mono- and divalent cations.