Search results for "Protein Unfolding"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Existence of metastable intermediate lysozyme conformation highlights the role of alcohols in altering protein stability.
2011
Alcohols have a manifold effect on the conformational and thermodynamic stability of native proteins. Here, we study the effect of moderate concentrations of trifluoroethanol (TFE) on the thermal stability of hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL), by far-UV circular dichroism and by steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence of intrinsic tryptophans. Our results highlight that TFE affects lysozyme stability by preferential solvation of the protein molecule. Furthermore, we discovered the existence at 20% TFE of an equilibrium partially folded state of lysozyme, intermediate between the native and the unfolded state. A three-state model is therefore used to interpolate the thermal denaturation…
Two Latent and Two Hyperstable Polymeric Forms of Human Neuroserpin
2010
AbstractHuman neuroserpin (hNS) is a serine protease inhibitor that belongs to the serpin superfamily and is expressed in nervous tissues. The serpin fold is generally characterized by a long exposed loop, termed the reactive center loop, that acts as bait for the target protease. Intramolecular insertion of the reactive center loop into the main serpin β-sheet leads to the serpin latent form. As with other known serpins, hNS pathological mutants have been shown to accumulate as polymers composed of quasi-native protein molecules. Although hNS polymerization has been intensely studied, a general agreement about serpin polymer organization is still lacking. Here we report a biophysical chara…
The tetrameric α-helical membrane protein GlpF unfolds via a dimeric folding intermediate.
2011
Many membrane proteins appear to be present and functional in higher-order oligomeric states. While few studies have analyzed the thermodynamic stability of α-helical transmembrane (TM) proteins under equilibrium conditions in the past, oligomerization of larger polytopic monomers has essentially not yet been studied. However, it is vital to study the folding of oligomeric membrane proteins to improve our understanding of the general mechanisms and pathways of TM protein folding. To investigate the folding and stability of the aquaglyceroporin GlpF from Escherichia coli, unfolding of the protein in mixed micelles was monitored by steady-state fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy…
Tension Causes Unfolding of Intracellular Vimentin Intermediate Filaments
2020
Intermediate filament (IF) proteins are a class of proteins that constitute different filamentous structures in mammalian cells. As such, IF proteins are part of the load-bearing cytoskeleton and support the nuclear envelope. Molecular dynamics simulations show that IF proteins undergo secondary structural changes to compensate mechanical loads, which is confirmed by experimental in vitro studies on IF hydrogels. However, the structural response of intracellular IF to mechanical load is yet to be elucidated in cellulo. Here, in situ nonlinear Raman imaging combined with multivariate data analysis is used to quantify the intracellular secondary structure of the IF cytoskeletal protein viment…
Conformational response to ligand binding in phosphomannomutase2: insights into inborn glycosylation disorder.
2014
Background: Mutations in phosphomannomutase2 cause glycosylation disorder, a disease without a cure that will largely benefit from accurate ligand-bound models. Results: We obtained two models of phospomannomutase2 bound to glucose 1,6-bisphosphate and validated them with limited proteolysis. Conclusion: Ligand binding induces a large conformational transition in PMM2. Significance: We produce and validate closed-form models of PMM2 that represent a starting point for rational drug discovery.
The non-bilayer lipid MGDG stabilizes the major light-harvesting complex (LHCII) against unfolding.
2017
Abstract In the photosynthetic apparatus of plants a high proportion of LHCII protein is needed to integrate 50% non-bilayer lipid MGDG into the lamellar thylakoid membrane, but whether and how the stability of the protein is also affected is not known. Here we use single-molecule force spectroscopy to map the stability of LHCII against mechanical unfolding along the polypeptide chain as a function of oligomerization state and lipid composition. Comparing unfolding forces between monomeric and trimeric LHCII demonstrates that the stability does not increase significantly upon trimerization but can mainly be correlated with specific contact sites between adjacent monomers. In contrast, unfol…
Curvature and Torsion of Protein Main Chain as Local Order Parameters of Protein Unfolding
2020
International audience; Thermal protein unfolding resembles a global (two-state) phase transition. At the local scale, protein unfolding is, however, heterogeneous and probe dependent. Here, we consider local order parameters defined by the local curvature and torsion of the protein main chain. Because chemical shift (CS) measured by NMR spectroscopy is extremely sensitive to the local atomic environment, CS has served as a local probe of thermal unfolding of proteins by varying the position of the atomic isotope along the amino-acid sequence. The variation of the CS of each C(alpha) atom along the sequence as a function of the temperature defines a local heat-induced denaturation curve. We…
Mechanical unfolding pathway of a model β-peptide foldamer.
2015
Foldamers constructed from oligomers of β-peptides form stable secondary helix structures already for small chain lengths, which makes them ideal candidates for the investigation of the (un)folding of polypeptides. Here, the results of molecular simulations of the mechanical unfolding of a β-heptapeptide in methanol solvent revealing the detailed unfolding pathway are reported. The unfolding process is shown to proceed via a stable intermediate even for such a small system. This result is arrived at performing non-equilibrium force ramp simulations employing different pulling velocities and also using standard calculations of the potential of mean force, i.e., the free energy as a function …