Random-coil Behavior and the Dimensions of Chemically Unfolded Proteins

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2004 Aug 18

PMID 15314214

Citations 314

Authors

Jonathan E Kohn

Ian S Millett

Jaby Jacob

Bojan Zagrovic

Thomas M Dillon

Nikolina Cingel

Robin S Dothager

Soenke Seifert

P Thiyagarajan

Tobin R Sosnick

M Zahid Hasan

Vijay S Pande

Ingo Ruczinski

Sebastian Doniach

Kevin W Plaxco

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Spectroscopic studies have identified a number of proteins that appear to retain significant residual structure under even strongly denaturing conditions. Intrinsic viscosity, hydrodynamic radii, and small-angle x-ray scattering studies, in contrast, indicate that the dimensions of most chemically denatured proteins scale with polypeptide length by means of the power-law relationship expected for random-coil behavior. Here we further explore this discrepancy by expanding the length range of characterized denatured-state radii of gyration (R(G)) and by reexamining proteins that reportedly do not fit the expected dimensional scaling. We find that only 2 of 28 crosslink-free, prosthetic-group-free, chemically denatured polypeptides deviate significantly from a power-law relationship with polymer length. The R(G) of the remaining 26 polypeptides, which range from 16 to 549 residues, are well fitted (r(2) = 0.988) by a power-law relationship with a best-fit exponent, 0.598 +/- 0.028, coinciding closely with the 0.588 predicted for an excluded volume random coil. Therefore, it appears that the mean dimensions of the large majority of chemically denatured proteins are effectively indistinguishable from the mean dimensions of a random-coil ensemble.

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