Energy landscape in protein folding and unfolding

We use 1H NMR to probe the energy landscape in the protein folding and unfolding process. Using the scheme ⇄ reversible unfolded (intermediate) → irreversible unfolded (denatured) state, we study the thermal denaturation of hydrated lysozyme that occurs when the temperature is increased. Using therm...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mallamace, Francesco, Corsaro, Carmelo, Mallamace, Domenico, Vasi, Sebastiano, Vasi, Cirino, Baglioni, Piero, Buldyrev, Sergey V., Chen, Sow-Hsin, Stanley, H. Eugene
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110009
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6588-2428
Description
Summary:We use 1H NMR to probe the energy landscape in the protein folding and unfolding process. Using the scheme ⇄ reversible unfolded (intermediate) → irreversible unfolded (denatured) state, we study the thermal denaturation of hydrated lysozyme that occurs when the temperature is increased. Using thermal cycles in the range 295<T<365 K and following different trajectories along the protein energy surface, we observe that the hydrophilic (the amide NH) and hydrophobic (methyl CH3 and methine CH) peptide groups evolve and exhibit different behaviors. We also discuss the role of water and hydrogen bonding in the protein configurational stability.