Aqueous poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO109-PPO41-PEO109) copolymers are nonionic surfactants that self-organize to form aggregate structures with increasing temperature or concentration. We have studied two concentrations over a range of temperatures so that the copolymers are in one of three microphases: unimers, micelles, or hydrogels formed from body centered cubic aggregates of micelles. Three different coumarin dyes were chosen based on their hydrophobicity so that different aggregate regions could be probed independently-water insoluble coumarin 153 (C153), hydrophobic coumarin 102 (C102), and the hydrophilic sodium carboxylate form of coumarin 343 (C343-). Fluorescence anisotropy experiments provide detailed information on the local microviscosity. C153 experiences a fourfold increase in reorientation time and hence microviscosity with increasing temperature through the microphase transition from unimers to micelles. C102 also shows an increase in microviscosity with temperature but smaller in magnitude and with the microphase transition shifted to higher temperature relative to C153. C343- shows only a slight sensitivity to the microphase transition. For any of the three coumarin probes, fluorescence anisotropies do not show any correlation with the microphase transition to form cubic hydrogels.
Miniproteins provide useful model systems for understanding the principles of protein folding and design. These proteins also serve as useful test cases for theories of protein folding, and their small size and ultrafast folding kinetics put them in a regime of size and time scales that is now becoming accessible to molecular dynamics simulations. Previous estimates have suggested the "speed limit" for folding is on the order of 1 mus. Here a computationally designed mutant of the 20-residue Trp-cage miniprotein, Trp2-cage, is presented. The Trp2-cage has greater stability than the parent and folds on the ultrafast time scale of 1 mICROs at room temperature, as determined from infrared temperature-jump experiments.
A new twist: A multi‐probe and multi‐frequency approach is shown for dissecting the folding dynamics of individual protein structural elements. In response to a temperature jump the 310‐helix (blue in the picture) of the miniprotein Trp‐cage unfolds before the global unfolding of the protein, whereas the formation of the cage structure depends on the folding of the α‐helix (red).
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