Abstract
In the current three-state protein unfolding model, the two transitions are considered to be independent and each transition is fitted to a two-state unfolding model. This three-state unfolding process is therefore composed of two sequential two-state unfolding processes. In this paper, a modified method is presented to determine the value of the unfolding free energy [δG 0total (H2O)] for the three-state unfolding equilibrium of proteins. This method is demonstrated on the apoCopC protein mutant, Y79W-W83F-Cu, which unfolds via a three-state process. The value of ΔG 0total (H2O) calculated using the modified method was found to be more accurate in determining ΔG 0total (H2O) than the previously reported method.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ferreon A C M, Bolen D W. Thermodynamics of denaturant-induced unfolding of a protein that exhibits variable two-state denaturation. Biochemistry, 2004, 43: 13357–13369
Greene R F, Pace C N. Urea and guanidine hydrochloride denaturation of ribonuclease, lysozyme, R-chymotrypsin, and â-lactoglobulin. J Biol Chem, 1974, 249: 5388–5393
Bhuyan A K. Protein stabilization by urea and guanidine hydrochloride. Biochemistry, 2002, 41: 13386–13394
Santoro M M, Bolen D W. Unfolding free energy changes determined by the linear extrapolation method. Unfolding of phenylmethanesulfonyl R-chymotrypsin using different denaturants. Biochemistry, 1988, 27: 8063–8068
Gupta R, Ahmad F. Protein stability: Functional dependence of denaturational Gibbs energy on urea concentration. Biochemistry, 1999, 38: 2471–2479
Palleros D R, Shi L, et al. Three-state denaturation of DnaK induced by guanidine hydrochloride. Evidence for an expandable intermediate. Biochemistry, 1993, 32: 4314–4321
Matthews C R, Crisanti M M. Urea-induced unfolding of α subunit of tryptophan aynthase: Evidence for a multistate process. Biochemistry, 1981, 20: 784–792
Wang X Y, Zhang Z R, Perrett S. Characterization of the activity and folding of the glutathione transferase from Escherichia coli and the roles of residues Cys10 and His106. Biochem J, 2009, 417: 55–64
Boehm K, Guddorf J, Albers A, et al. Thermodynamic analysis of denaturant-induced unfolding of HodC69S protein supports a three-state mechanism. Biochemistry, 2008, 47: 7116–7126
Arnesano F, Banci L, Bertini I, et al. Solution structure of CopC: A cupredoxin-like protein involved in copper homeostasis. Structure, 2002, 10: 1337–1347
Arnesano F, Banci L, Bertini I, et al. A strategy for the NMR characterization of type II copper(II) proteins: The case of the copper trafficking protein CopC from Pseudomonas syringae. J Am Chem Soc, 2003, 125: 7200–7208
Zheng X Y, Pang E G, Zhao Y Q, et al. Spectral studies on the interaction between mercuric ion and apoCopC. Chin J Chem, 2007, 25: 630–634
Wang X H, Ren J S, Qu X G. Biophysical studies on the full-length human cyclin A: Protein stability and folding/unfolding thermodynamics. J Phys Chem B, 2008, 112: 8346–8353
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Zheng, X., Yang, B. An improved method for measuring the stability of a three-state unfolding protein. Chin. Sci. Bull. 55, 4120–4124 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-4242-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-4242-9