Conformational stability of ribonuclease Sa from Streptomyces aureofaciens /

A chemically synthesized gene for ribonuclease Sa, RNase Sa,

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hebert, Eric John, 1966-
Format: Thesis Book
Language:English
Published: [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] ; 1997.
Subjects:
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Description
Summary:A chemically synthesized gene for ribonuclease Sa, RNase Sa,
from Streptomyces aureofaciens BM-K has been cloned and
expressed in Escherichia coli. A simple two column
purification scheme has been developed for the purification
of - 60 mg of recombinant protein per liter of liquid
culture. The recombinant protein expressed in E. coli is
identical to the protein produced by the Actinomycete, S.
aureofaciens. Thermal denaturation has been used at several
different pH values to investigate the conformational
stability of the protein. From these data the free energy of
unfolding, AGu (5.3 kcal mol-1 at 25 'C, 30 mM MOPS pH 7.0),
enthalpy of unfolding, AH (90.1 kcal mol-1), the melting
temperature, Tm (48.6 'C), and heat capacity change
associated with unfolding, ACp (1.45 kcal mol-1 K'), have
been measured. The pH dependence and salt dependence of the
conformational stability of RNase Sa have also been studied.
Seven hydrogen bonding mutants in RNase Sa have been made to
estimate the contribution of hydrogen bonding interactions to
the conformational stability of RNase Sa., From thermal
denaturation studies of these mutants, hydrogen bonding is
estimated to contribute on average - 3 kcal mol-1 per
hydrogen bond to the stability of the native state of RNase
Sa. This estimate is slightly higher than that estimated
from 52 hydrogen bonding mutants from six different proteins
analyzed previously (Myers & Pace, 1996). The large
variation in the measured A(AG) values for hydrogen bonding
interactions have been examined for several similar hydrogen
bonding interactions in the RNases Sa, Tl, and Ba. We find
no correlations for the bond length and bond angles to
hydrogen bonding strength. A single tryptophan residue has
been added to the wild-type sequence of RNase Sa to provide
an additional spectroscopic probe to monitor protein
unfolding. The Tyr52-4Trp RNase Sa mutant shows a 4,, of 311
mn in the folded state and shows a seven fold decrease in
fluorescence intensity upon unfolding in 9M urea. This
tryptophan is the second most blue shifted tryptophan found
in proteins.
Item Description:Vita.
"Major Subject: Biochemistry".
Physical Description:xv, 151 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm.
Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references: pages 134-150.