Although many proteins are recognized to undergo folding via an intermediate, the microscopic nature of folding intermediates is less understood. In this study, ¹⁹F NMR and near-UV circular dichroism (CD) are used to characterize a transition to a thermal folding intermediate of calmodulin, a water-soluble protein, which is biosynthetically enriched with 3-fluorophenylalanine (3F-Phe). ¹⁹F NMR solvent isotope shifts, resulting from replacing H₂O with D₂O, and paramagnetic shifts arising from dissolved O₂ are used to monitor changes in the water accessibility and hydrophobicity of the protein interior as the protein progresses from a native state to an unfolded state along a heat-denaturation pathway. In comparison to the native state, the solvent isotope shifts reveal the decreased presence of water in the hydrophobic core, whereas the paramagnetic shifts show the increased hydrophobicity of this folding intermediate. ¹⁵N, ¹H and methyl ¹³C,¹H HSQC NMR spectra demonstrate that this folding intermediate retains a near-native tertiary structure whose hydrophobic interior is highly dynamic. ¹⁹F NMR CPMG relaxation dispersion measurements suggest the near-native state is transiently adopted well below the temperature associated with its onset.

Calcium-bound calmodulin (CaM-4Ca(2+)) is innately promiscuous with regard to its protein interaction network within the cell. A key facet of the interaction process involves conformational selection. In the absence of a binding peptide, CaM-4Ca(2+) adopts an equilibrium between a native state (N) and a weakly populated near-native peptide-bound-like state (I), whose lifetime is on the order of 1.5 ms at 37 °C, based on (19)F nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) relaxation dispersion measurements. This peptide-bound-like state of CaM-4Ca(2+) is entropically stabilized (ΔS = 280 ± 35 J mol(-1) K(-1)) relative to the native state, water-depleted, and likely parental to specific bound states. Solvent depletion, conformational selection, and flexibility of the peptide-bound-like state may be important in priming the protein for binding. At higher temperatures, the exchange rate, kex, appears to markedly slow, suggesting the onset of misfolded or off-pathway states, which retards interconversion between N and I. (19)F NMR CPMG relaxation dispersion experiments with both CaM-4Ca(2+) and the separate N-terminal and C-terminal domains reveal the cooperative role of the two domains in the binding process and the flexibility of the N-terminal domain in facilitating binding. Thus, when calcium binds, calmodulin establishes its interaction with a multitude of protein binding partners, through a combination of conformational selection to a state that is parental to the peptide-bound state and, finally, induced fit.