title: Effect of heat-induced structural perturbation of secondary and tertiary structures on the chaperone activity of alpha-crystallin.
abstract: alpha-Crystallin, a major protein of the lens, is known to have chaperone activity to protect other proteins against thermal aggregation. Heat-induced structural change of alpha-crystallin was previously shown to increase its chaperone activity. In this report, we studied the thermal reversibility of alpha-crystallin and the effect of change in secondary structure on its chaperone function in vitro. The heat-induced conformational changes in the aromatic region of near-UV CD spectra showed only a small degree of reversibility. The structural transitions from 50 to 70 degrees C were largely reversible if the incubation time was short. However, the protective ability to inhibit thermal aggregation of alcohol dehydrogenase by alpha-crystallin was essentially similar at 48 and 70 degrees C. Under long-term heating at high temperatures, there was a time-dependent irreversibility of structural change in alpha-crystallin as revealed by CD spectroscopy. Such denatured alpha-crystallin by long-term heating can still preserve its ability to prevent UV-induced aggregation of gamma-crystallin at room temperature, indicating relatively little effect of heat-induced changes in secondary structure on the chaperone activity of alpha-crystallin.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemical Sciences, Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Academia, Taiwan.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shinoda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Samejima
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chiou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D003459:Crystallins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000378:metabolism*; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D003459:Crystallins; D018832:Molecular Chaperones