Investigations of protein structure with optical spectroscopy: bovine growth hormone

Abstract

Optical spectroscopy provides a wealth of information about protein structure that is difficult to obtain from other methods. Investigations of changes in primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structure are particularly well-suited for optical techniques such as UV absorption, circular dichroism, fluorescence, Raman and infrared spectroscopy, as well as light scattering methods. Each method has unique areas of applicability and contributes to structure determination in a different manner. The application of these methods is demonstrated with examples of studies performed on bovine growth hormone. Some of these include: determination of solution-state structure, monitoring differences between solution- and solid-state structure, determination of molecular size distribution, and investigations of protein folding mechanisms. It is demonstrated that by judicious choice of methods, a reasonably complete description of protein structure can be obtained.

Angiogenic properties of natural rubber latex biomembranes and the serum fraction of Hevea brasiliensis

“…The features in the spectra are probably associated with the secondary struc- ture of proteins, as identified by the amide bands (amide I -1620-1700 cm-1) and amide II -1520-1580 cm-1) [32,33]. This region is represented between dashed lines in Figure 7.…”

Raman Spectroscopic Studies of a Dimeric Form of Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone

“…These differences in secondary structure have been studied (1) and are manifested in the amide I and amide V spectral variations shown in Figs. 5 and 4, respectively.…”

“…Recombinant bovine growth hormone (r-bGH) 1 biological activity is affected by the state of its disulfide bridges. Some biological activity is absent by the cleavage of the small loop bridge.…”

“…Raman spectra have previously been used to characterize the general secondary structural characteristics and the nature of the disulfide bonds of r-bGH and a number of r-bGH analogs and fragments (1). Raman amide vibrations are frequently used to gain information on protein backbone secondary structure.…”

Spectroscopic Analysis of Highly Concentrated Suspensions of Bovine Somatotropin in Sesame Oil

“…7). 13,17 The differences seen in b-structure could be due to either the differences in solvent or the effective pH at which the experiments were performed. Since limited solubility at more moderate pH values did not permit ATR-FTIR studies to be performed, these differences were not investigated further.…”