The mechanism of unfolding of ferricytochrome c induced by the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate has been studied by heme absorption, tryptophan fluorescence, circular dichroism, resonance Raman scattering, stopped-flow and time-resolved resonance energy transfer to obtain a comprehensive view of the whole process. Unfolding occurred at an almost specific molecular ratio of SDS/cytochrome c in the concentration range (20Ϫ50 µM) studied here. However there appears to be a point at Ϸ0.6 mM SDS where unfolding begins to occur for lower cytochrome c concentrations. The kinetics of unfolding revealed only a single transition with a rate constant of 33 s Ϫ1 (at 298 K, [SDS] ϭ 8.7 mM) and activation energy barrier of Ϸ 16 kJ/mol, indicating that other associated steps, if any, are too fast to be significantly populated. The free energy change (∆G°) involved with the unfolding transition was estimated to be about 16.8 kJ/mol. The CD spectrum at 220 nm of SDS-unfolded cytochrome c shows only a partial decrease (25%), indicating that a significant amount of helical structure remains folded in contrast to a complete loss of helical structure in GdnHCl-denatured cytochrome c. The heme structure in SDS-unfolded cytochrome c, as deduced from heme absorption and resonance Raman spectra, shows a major population (Ϸ95%) of mis-ligated histidine to the heme which acts as a kinetic trap in the folding process. The structural changes associated with cytochrome c unfolding were also monitored by time-resolved resonance energy transfer which shows a drastic increase in tryptophan fluorescence lifetime from 12 ps in the native protein to 0.63 ns in the unfolded one, associated with a movement of Trp59 by 10 Å away from heme. The maximum entropy method analysis of fluorescence decay indicated the growth of various conformational substates in SDS-unfolded cytochrome c in contrast to narrowly distributed conformations in the native protein. The refolding was comprised of three kinetic steps; the first was significantly fast (Ϸ8 ms) and was assigned to the dissociation of His26 that paves the protein towards correct folding pathway. The other two slower steps probably arise from chain misorganization and prolyl isomerization. The absence of a burst-phase amplitude supports the idea that the burst phase observed in the folding from completely unfolded cytochrome c corresponds to a molecular collapse that produces significant secondary structure. The partially unfolded state represents a unique intermediate state in the folding pathway.

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An insight into the conformation and dynamics of unfolded and early intermediate states of a protein is essential to understand the mechanism of its aggregation and to design potent inhibitor molecules. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy has been used to study the effects of several model protein stabilizers on the conformation of the unfolded state and early folding dynamics of tetramethyl rhodamine-labeled cytochrome c from Saccharomyces cerevisiae at single molecular resolution. Special attention has been given to arginine, which is a widely used stabilizer for improving refolding yield of different proteins. The value of the hydrodynamic radius (r H ) obtained by analyzing the intensity fluctuations of the diffusing molecules has been found to increase in a two-state manner as the protein is unfolded by urea. The results further show that the presence of arginine and other protein stabilizers favors a relatively structured conformation of the unfolded states (r H of 29 Å ) over an extended one (r H of 40 Å ), which forms in their absence. Also, the time constant of a kinetic component ( R ) of about 30 s has been observed by analyzing the correlation functions, which represents formation of a collapsed state. This time constant varies with urea concentration representing an inverted Chevron plot that shows a roll-over behavior in the absence of arginine. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first applications of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy to study direct folding kinetics of a protein.

A magnetic study has been carried out in the temperature range 1.2 -25 K and magnetic field range 0 to 50 kOe on single crystals of mangangese(II) phthalocyanine. At higher temperatures the magnetic properties of manganese(II) phthalocyanine exhibit chain-like characteristics which may be understood in terms of ferromagnetic Heisenberg intrachain exchange of S = 3/2 ions with a weak antiferromagnetic interchain interaction. In the ordered state, T c = 8.3 K, MnPc is a canted ferromagnet with easy axes of magnetization being along X, and X3 directions. A zero-field splitting of the single ion A 2 state of the manganese(If) ion gives rise to canted ferromagnetism which does not show complete saturation at the high field range of these experiments (50 kOe). The spin -.structure of manganese(II) phthalocyanine at low temperature is *i discussed.

ChemInform Abstract (sodium dodecyl sulfate).

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The binding of thiocyanate to lactoperoxidase (LPO) has been investigated by 1H and 15N NMR spectroscopy. 1H NMR of LPO shows that the major broad heme methyl proton resonance at about 61 ppm is shifted upfield by addition of the thiocyanate, indicating binding of the thiocyanate to the enzyme. The pH dependence of line width of 15N resonance of SC15N- in the presence of the enzyme has revealed that the binding of the thiocyanate to the enzyme is facilitated by protonation of an ionizable group (with pKa of 6.4), which is presumably distal histidine. Dissociation constants (KD) of SC15N-/LPO, SC15N-/LPO/I-, and SC15N-/LPO/CN- equilibria have been determined by 15N T1 measurements and found to be 90 +/- 5, 173 +/- 20, and 83 +/- 6 mM, respectively. On the basis of these values of KD, it is suggested that the iodide ion inhibits the binding of the thiocyanate but cyanide ion does not. The thiocyanate is shown to bind at the same site of LPO as iodide does, but the binding is considerably weaker and is away from the ferric ion. The distance of 15N of the bound thiocyanate ion from the iron is determined to be 7.2 +/- 0.2 A from the 15N T1 measurements.