title: Structural basis of protein kinetic stability: resistance to sodium dodecyl sulfate suggests a central role for rigidity and a bias toward beta-sheet structure.
abstract: The term kinetic stability is used to describe proteins that are trapped in a specific conformation because of an unusually high-unfolding barrier that results in very slow unfolding rates. Motivated by the observation that some proteins are resistant to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-induced denaturation, an attempt was made to determine whether this property is a result of kinetic stability. We studied many proteins, including a few kinetically stable proteins known to be resistant to SDS. The resistance to SDS-induced denaturation was investigated by comparing the migration on polyacrylamide gels of identical boiled and unboiled protein samples containing SDS. On the basis of the different migration of these samples, eight proteins emerged as being resistant to SDS. The kinetic stability of these proteins was confirmed by their slow unfolding rate upon incubation in guanidine hydrochloride. Further studies showed that these proteins were also extremely resistant to proteolysis by proteinase K, suggesting that a common mechanism may account for their resistance to SDS and proteolytic cleavage. Together, these observations suggest that a rigid protein structure may be the physical basis for kinetic stability and that resistance to SDS may serve as a simple assay for identifying proteins whose native conformations are kinetically trapped. Remarkably, most of the kinetically stable SDS-resistant proteins in this study are oligomeric beta-sheet proteins, suggesting a bias of these types of structures toward kinetic stability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, New York 12180, USA.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.forename: Wilfredo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Colón
mesh_terms: D001360:Avidin / Q000737:chemistry; D002917:Chymopapain / Q000737:chemistry; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D019286:Endopeptidase K / Q000737:chemistry; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases; D006868:Hydrolysis; D007700:Kinetics; D010206:Papain / Q000737:chemistry; D011228:Prealbumin / Q000737:chemistry; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D017510:Protein Folding; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D000683:Serum Amyloid P-Component / Q000737:chemistry; D012967:Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D019809:Streptavidin / Q000737:chemistry; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000737:chemistry; D013816:Thermodynamics; D017376:Viral Tail Proteins / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D011228:Prealbumin; D000683:Serum Amyloid P-Component; D017376:Viral Tail Proteins; D001360:Avidin; D012967:Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate; D019809:Streptavidin; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases; C083268:tailspike protein, bacteriophage; D019286:Endopeptidase K; D010206:Papain; D002917:Chymopapain