Abstract:

To understand the potential factors that promote the dissociation of actomyosin, actomyosin was extracted from
duck breast muscle and the effect of Ca2+, ATP, and its degradation products on actomyosin dissociation was investigated.
The dissociation of actomyosin was evaluated by measuring changes in actin content by Western blotting analysis. Results
showed that there was no significant change in actomyosin dissociation when it was treated with 7.5–64 mmol/L Ca2+ (P >
0.05), whereas actomyosin dissociation was enhanced significantly by 200 mmol/L Ca2+ treatment (P < 0.05). ATP treatment
alone did not result in a significant change in actomyosin dissociation (P > 0.05), but combinatorial treatment with Ca2+
and ATP significantly increased actomyosin dissociation (P < 0.05). Both ADP or AMP remarkably promoted actomyosin
dissociation (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference among different concentration groups (P > 0.05). These
results suggest that actomyosin dissociation is significantly improved when the actomyosin is treated with ADP, AMP, or
combination of Ca2+ and ATP.

Key words: duck, actomyosin, Western blotting, dissociation, actin