Helix-coil stability constants for the naturally occurring amino acids in water. 20. Reinvestigation of valine parameters from random poly[(hydroxypropyl)glutamine-co-L-valine]

Influence of L-cystinyl side-chain configurations on the melting of crosslinked alpha-tropomyosin dimers

The experimental melting profile reported by Holtzer, M.E., Holtzer, A. and Skolnick, J. (Macromolecules 16 (1983) 173-180) for the rabbit alpha-tropomyosin dimer crosslinked at cysteine residue 190 has been analyzed using matrix methods. The configuration partition function employed includes a term arising from interactions at the crosslink site. This term, denoted by omega, is found to be smaller than 1, implying that events at the crosslink site resist helix formation by dimer. A theoretical analysis of the conformational restrictions imposed on the crosslink provides a satisfactory estimate of omega at high temperatures. Agreement deteriorates at lower temperatures, perhaps as a consequence of difficulty in establishing a reliable value for omega from analysis of the low-temperature circular dichroism data.

Helix formation upon acidification of protein-dodecyl sulfate complexes

The pH dependence of circular dichroism spectra has been studied for dodecyl sulfate complexes formed by 25 proteins and for a random copolypeptide of glutamic acid and alanine. The pH range covered is that in which titration of side-chain carboxyl groups is to be expected. Circular dichroism spectra signify an increase in helical content upon acidification, although in many cases the increase is quite small. For all but three of the proteins studied, the spectral changes are in reasonable agreement with those expected because helix propagation by glutamyl and aspartyl residues is enhanced when the state of the side-chain carboxyl changes from COO- to COOH. This simple explanation seriously underestimates conformational changes reported for gastrin, Kunitz trypsin inhibitor and tropomyosin. Changes in charge density appear to play an important role in these proteins.