Denaturation midpoint

Abstract: Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the stability of proteins and presents the results obtained on small compact globular proteins, which represent one single cooperative system. Protein is a cooperative system and behaves in an all-or-none fashion. Sharp changes in the properties of a protein do not mean anything in themselves because sequential multistep transitions exhibit the same sharp sigmoidal changes in the observed parameters. The problem of stability of native proteins is closely connected with the problem of protein denaturation, as stability can be judged only by breaking the native structure—that is, denaturing protein by various treatments. The pH of the solution is one of the most important factors determining the state of a protein. Potentiometric titration of protein revealed that smooth changes are connected with the titration of groups with a pK not very different from that of free amino acids, while the gross conformational changes associated with pH denaturation are accompanied by the unmasking of buried groups. The chapter also discusses the temperature-induced changes in protein, denaturational and predenaturational changes in protein, thermodynamics of protein unfolding, and thermodynamic properties of protein.

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...

Abstract: The kinetics of the neat-induced irreversible denaturation of β-lacto-globulins (β-LG) A and B and of α-lactalbumin (α-LA) in milk were examined over a wide temperature/time range (70-150°C, 2-5400 sec). Denaturation of β-LG was best described with an apparent reaction order of 1.5 (α-LA; first order). The abrupt changes in the temperature dependence of the rate constants (β-LG at 90°C, α-LA at 80°C) were interpreted in terms of the different activation energies and entropies occurring in the two temperature ranges. By using the kinetic parameters for calculating lines of equal degrees of denaturation in a plot of log-time versus 1/absolute temperature it was possible to predict the effect of different heat treatments on the denaturation of individual proteins.

Abstract: Eleven mutant forms of staphylococcal nuclease with one or more defined amino acid substitutions have been analyzed by solvent denaturation by using intrinsic fluorescence to follow the denaturation reaction. On the basis of patterns observed in the value of m--the rate of change of log Kapp (the apparent equilibrium constant between the native and denatured states) with denaturant concentration--these proteins can be grouped into two classes. For class I mutants, the value of m with guanidine hydrochloride is less than the wild-type value and is either constant or increases slightly with increasing denaturant; the value of m with urea is also less than wild type but shows a marked increase with increasing denaturant concentration, often approaching but never exceeding the wild-type value. For class II mutants, m is constant and is greater than wild type in both denaturants, with the increase being consistently larger in guanidine hydrochloride than in urea. When double or triple mutants are constructed from members of the same mutant class, the change in m is usually the sum of the changes produced by each mutation in isolation. One plausible explanation for these altered patterns of denaturation is that chain-chain or chain-solvent interactions in the denatured state have been modified--interactions which appear to involve hydrophobic groups.