Denaturant-Induced Conformational Transitions in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2012

Keywords

Conformational Stability, Denaturant-induced Unfolding, Molten Globule, Pre-molten Globule, Two-state Transition, Three-state Transition

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3704-8_12

Abstract

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) differ from ordered proteins at several levels: structural, functional, and conformational. Amino acid biases also drive atypical responses of IDPs to changes in their environment. Among several specific features, the conformational behavior of IDPs is characterized by the low cooperativity (or the complete lack thereof) of the denaturant-induced unfolding. In fact, the denaturant-induced unfolding of native molten globules can be described by shallow sigmoidal curves, whereas urea- or guanidinium hydrochloride-induced unfolding of native pre-molten globules or native coils is a noncooperative process and typically is seen as monotonous feature-less changes in the studied parameters. This chapter describes some of the most characteristic features of the IDP conformational behavior.

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Denaturant-Induced Conformational Transitions in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, in V. N. Uversky & A. K. Dunker (Eds.), Intrinsically Disordered Protein Analysis, Humana Press, p. 197-213

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