It is well-known that the C=N stretching vibration in acetonitrile is sensitive to solvent. Therefore, we proposed in this contribution to use this vibrational mode to report local environment of a particular amino acid in proteins or local environmental changes upon binding or folding. We have studied the solvent-induced frequency shift of two nitrile-derivatized amino acids, which are, AlaCN and PheCN, in H(2)O and tetrahydrofuran (THF), respectively. Here, THF was used to approximate a protein's hydrophobic interior because of its low dielectric constant. As expected, the C=N stretching vibrations of both AlaCN and PheCN shift as much as approximately 10 cm(-1) toward higher frequency when THF was replaced with H2O, indicative of the sensitivity of this vibration to solvation. To further test the utility of nitrile-derivatized amino acids as probes of the environment within a peptide, we have studied the binding between calmodulin (CaM) and a peptide from the CaM binding domain of skeletal muscle myosin light chain kinase (MLCK(579-595)), which contains a single PheCN. MLCK(579-595) binds to CaM in a helical conformation. When the PheCN was substituted on the polar side of the helix, which was partially exposed to water, the C=N stretching vibration is similar to that of PheCN in water. In constrast, when PheCN is introduced at a site that becomes buried in the interior of the protein, the C=N stretch is similar to that of PheCN in THF. Together, these results suggest that the C=N stretching vibration of nitrile-derivatized amino acids can indeed be used as local internal environmental markers, especially for protein conformational studies.

The helix-coil transition kinetics of an ␣-helical peptide were investigated by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy coupled with laser-induced temperature-jump initiation method. Specific isotope labeling of the amide carbonyl groups with 13 C at selected residues was used to obtain site-specific information. The relaxation kinetics following a temperature jump, obtained by probing the amide I band of the peptide backbone, exhibit nonexponential behavior and are sensitive to both initial and final temperatures. These data are consistent with a conformation diffusion process on the folding energy landscape, in accord with a recent molecular dynamics simulation study.T he helix-coil transition represents the simplest scenario in protein folding (1-9), yet the details of its kinetics are not understood fully. The classical helix-coil transition theory describes the mechanism of helix formation as a sequence of events, starting from a so-called nucleation step where the first helical hydrogen bond, formed between the amide carbonyl of residue i and the amide hydrogen of residue iϩ4, is generated. The subsequent steps involve helix elongation by adding an extra hydrogen bond at either end of the preexisting helical turns. It has been argued that the nucleation process encounters the largest free energy barrier during the course of helix formation because three residues concomitantly lose their conformational entropy, whereas the propagation steps are energetically favorable because only one residue loses conformational entropy that is balanced by the energy generated from the formation of one extra hydrogen bond. Provided that the nucleation barrier is large enough (compared with those encountered by the propagation steps), a two-state scenario as well as transition-state theory remains effective to explain the dynamics of helix formation. Although recent experiments on the helix-coil transition employing laser-induced temperature-jump (T-jump) method (10-13) have shown that single exponential kinetics, which are characteristic of a two-state system, seem to be adequate to describe the transition between helix-containing and nonhelixcontaining conformations, other studies involving theory and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have suggested that the helix-coil transition may not follow first-order kinetics (14,15). Another question that is also under debate involves the rate of the nucleation process. The T-jump data of infrared (10), fluorescence (11,12), and Raman (13), as well as results from an NMR experiment (16) all suggest that the nucleation step takes place on a submicrosecond time scale, whereas a stopped-flow CD study (17) indicates that the nucleation process may be much slower, on millisecond time scales.Recently, a new view of protein folding, based on statistical mechanical models of protein-like lattice or off-lattice polymers, has gained popularity in explaining protein folding dynamics, especially inhomogeneous folding kinetics. This new view describes protein folding as parallel, diffusion-like m...

Both turn sequence and interstrand hydrophobic side-chain-sidechain interaction have been suggested to be important determinants of ␤-hairpin stability. However, their roles in controlling the folding dynamics of ␤-hairpins have not been clearly determined. Herein, we investigated the structural stability and folding kinetics of a series of tryptophan zippers by static IR and CD spectroscopies and the IR temperature jump method. Our results support a ␤-hairpin folding mechanism wherein the rate-limiting event corresponds to the formation of the turn. We find that the logarithm of the folding rate depends linearly on the entropic change associated with the turn formation, where faster folding correlates with lower entropic cost. Moreover, a stronger turn-promoting sequence increases the stability of a ␤-hairpin primarily by increasing its folding rate, whereas a stronger hydrophobic cluster increases the stability of a ␤-hairpin primarily by decreasing its unfolding rate.S mall size and structural simplicity make short peptides that fold into well defined structures ideal model systems for examining factors that govern protein folding (1). Of particular interest are ␤-hairpins. With two antiparallel ␤-strands connected by a turn (or loop), the ␤-hairpin motif may be regarded as the smallest folding unit that contains tertiary contacts. Although an increasing body of evidence suggests that the ␤-hairpin can act as a folding nucleus (2-4), the mechanism by which individual ␤-hairpins fold has remained elusive. This elusiveness is partly due to the fact that so far only the folding kinetics of a few sequence-unrelated ␤-hairpins have been studied experimentally (5-9). These studies firmly demonstrated that ␤-hairpins fold on the microsecond time scale; however, the marked difference in the peptide sequence of those systems studied makes it difficult to determine explicitly the key factors that control the rate of ␤-hairpin folding.Although experimental measurements of the folding kinetics of ␤-hairpins are scarce, in the past few years a remarkable number of theoretical and computational studies have been conducted regarding the folding dynamics and energetics of a variety of ␤-hairpin systems (10-21). Results from these studies generally support the idea that the peptide sequence is an important determinant of the folding rate of ␤-hairpins. For example, the statistical model of Muñoz et al. (10) predicts that moving the hydrophobic cluster one residue closer to the turn will speed up the folding rate by 4 times, whereas the results of Thirumalai and Klimov (14,17) suggest that the turn rigidity plays a rather important role in determining the rate as well as the cooperativity of ␤-hairpin folding. Although it is still under debate whether ␤-hairpin folding begins with the formation of the turn (5, 10), interstrand hydrogen bond (16), or hydrophobic collapse (11), results from simulations generally support the idea that it involves multiple kinetic events, whereas the rate-limiting step may correspond to the assem...

Vaccinia virus is a large enveloped poxvirus with more than 200 genes in its genome. Although many poxvirus genomes have been sequenced, knowledge of the host and viral protein components of the virions remains incomplete. In this study, we used gel-free liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectroscopy to identify the viral and host proteins in purified vaccinia intracellular mature virions (IMV). Analysis of the proteins in the IMV showed that it contains 75 viral proteins, including structural proteins, enzymes, transcription factors, and predicted viral proteins not known to be expressed or present in the IMV. We also determined the relative abundances of the individual protein components in the IMV. Finally, 23 IMV-associated host proteins were also identified. This study provides the first comprehensive structural analysis of the infectious vaccinia virus IMV.

Raman spectra of proteins that are obtained with deep ultraviolet excitation contain resonance-enhanced amide bands of the polypeptide backbone, as well as aromatic side chain bands. The amide bands are sensitive to conformation, and can be used to estimate the backbone secondary structure. UV Raman spectra are reported at 206.5 and 197 nm, for a set of 12 proteins with varied secondary structure content, and are used to establish quantitative signatures of secondary structure via least-squares fitting. Amide band enhancement is greater at 197 nm, where basis spectra are established for b-turn, as well as a-helix, b-sheet and unordered structures; the lower signal strength at 206.5 nm does not provide a reliable spectrum for the first of these. Application of these basis spectra is illustrated for the melting of apo-myoglobin. The amide band positions and cross sections are discussed.