title: Association of complementary fragments and the elucidation of protein folding pathways.
abstract: Natural or engineered sites for chemical cleavage can be used to generate complementary fragments of well characterized proteins. The peptide fragments represent a unique tool for studying early events in protein folding, since these are usually the most inaccessible to the experimentalist. Analysis of the isolated fragments in non-denaturing conditions together with the determination of the structure of the folded non-covalent complexes and, most importantly, the kinetic analysis of the resulting second-order association/folding reaction can give a more complete picture of a folding pathway. The contribution of fragments to the understanding of some well characterized protein folding pathways is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquimica Medica-ICBM, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Cidade Universitaria, Brazil.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: de Prat-Gay
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D010940:Plant Proteins; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D012260:Ribonucleases / Q000737:chemistry; D015842:Serine Proteinase Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D010455:Peptides; D010940:Plant Proteins; D015842:Serine Proteinase Inhibitors; C093336:chymotrypsin inhibitor 2; D012260:Ribonucleases; C019760:Bacillus amyloliquefaciens ribonuclease