Cold denaturation of proteins.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors summarized all experimental facts concerning the cold denaturation of single-domain, multi-domain and multimeric globular proteins in aqueous solutions with and without urea and guanidine hydrochloride.

Abstract: This article summarizes all experimental facts concerning the cold denaturation of single-domain, multi-domain, and multimeric globular proteins in aqueous solutions with and without urea and guanidine hydrochloride. The facts obtained by various experimental techniques are analyzed thermodynamically and it is shown that the cold denaturation is a general phenomenon caused by the very specific and strongly termperature-dependent interaction of protein nonpolar groups with water. Hydration of these groups, in contrast to expectations, is favorable thermodynamically, i.e., the Gibbs energy of hydration is negative and increases in magnitude at a temperature decrease. As a result, the polypeptide chain, tightly packed in a compact native structure, unfolds at a sufficiently low temperature, exposing internal nonpolar groups to water. The reev-aluation of the hydration effect on the base of direct calorimetric studies of protein denaturation and of transfer of non-polar compounds into water leads to r...