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Thermodynamic Studies of Amino Acid–Denaturant Interactions in Aqueous Solutions at 298.15 K

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Abstract

As proteins and other biomolecules consisting of amino acid residues require external additives for their dissolution and recrystallization, it is important to have information about how such additives interact with amino acids. Therefore we have studied the interactions of simple model amino acids with the additives urea and guanidine hydrochloride in aqueous solutions at 298.15 K, using vapor pressure osmometry. During the measurements, the concentration of urea was fixed as ∼2 mol⋅kg−1 and that of guanidine hydrochloride was fixed as ∼1 mol⋅kg−1 whereas the concentrations of amino acids were varied. The experimental water activity data were processed to get the individual activity coefficients of all the three components in the ternary mixture. Further, the activity coefficients were used to get the excess Gibbs energies of solutions and Gibbs energies for transfer of either amino acids from water to aqueous denaturant solutions or denaturant from water to aqueous amino acid solutions. An application of the McMillan-Mayer theory of solutions through virial expansion of transfer Gibbs energies was made to get pair and triplet interaction parameter whose sign and magnitude yielded information about amino acid–denaturant interactions, relative to their interactions with water. The pair interaction parameters have been further used to obtain salting constants and in turn the thermodynamic equilibrium constant values for the amino acid–denaturant mixing process in aqueous solutions at 298.15 K. The results have been explained in terms of hydrophobic hydration, hydrophobic interactions and amino acid–denaturant binding.

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  1. Kesharsingh J. Patil

    Present address: School of Chemical Sciences, North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, 416004, India

    Deepti N. Kurhe, Jyoti P. Jadhav & Sanjay P. Govindwar

  2. Department of Chemistry, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, 416004, India

    Dilip H. Dagade & Kesharsingh J. Patil

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  1. Deepti N. Kurhe
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Kurhe, D.N., Dagade, D.H., Jadhav, J.P. et al. Thermodynamic Studies of Amino Acid–Denaturant Interactions in Aqueous Solutions at 298.15 K. J Solution Chem 40, 1596–1617 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10953-011-9737-8

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