Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

American Chemical Society, Biochemistry, 47(51), p. 9535-9546, 2012

DOI: 10.1021/bi301071z

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Remodeling of the Folding Free Energy Landscape of Staphylococcal Nuclease by Cavity-Creating Mutations

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
  • Must obtain written permission from Editor
  • Must not violate ACS ethical Guidelines
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
  • Must obtain written permission from Editor
  • Must not violate ACS ethical Guidelines
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The folding of staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) is known to proceed via a major intermediate in which the central OB sub-domain is folded and the C-terminal helical sub-domain is disordered. To identify the structural and energetic determinants of this folding free energy landscape we have examined in detail, using high pressure NMR, the consequences of cavity creating mutations in each of the two sub-domains of an ultra-stable SNase, Δ+PHS. The stabilizing mutations of Δ+PHS enhanced the population of the major folding intermediate. Cavity creation in two different regions of the Δ+PHS reference protein, despite equivalent effects on global stability, had very distinct consequences on the complexity of the folding free energy landscape. The L125A substitution in the C-terminal helix of Δ+PHS slightly suppressed the major intermediate and promoted an additional excited state involving disorder in the N-terminus, but otherwise decreased landscape heterogeneity with respect to the Δ+PHS background protein. The I92A substitution, located in the hydrophobic OB-fold core, had a much more profound effect, resulting in a significant increase in the number of intermediate states and implicating the entire protein structure. Denaturant (GuHCl) had very subtle and specific effects on the landscape, suppressing some states and favoring others, depending upon the mutational context. These results demonstrate that disrupting interactions in a region of the protein with highly cooperative, un-frustrated folding has very profound effects on the roughness of the folding landscape, whereas the effects are less pronounced for an energetically equivalent substitution in an already frustrated region.