Fluorimetric titrations were used to determine apparent dissociation constants of the all-trans isomers of retinol, retinoic acid, retinyl acetate and retinyl palmitate to human-retinol binding protein and chicken-retinol binding protein. Enhancement of the fluorescence of retinol and retinyl acetate when bound to the protein was utilized to establish the binding affinity of these compounds. With retinoic acid which is essentially a non-fluorescent compound, quenching of protein fluorescence due to energy transfer to the bound ligand from tryptophanyl residues served to determine the binding affinity. The various ligands display 1 : 1 molecular complexes with both types of retinol binding proteins. Retinol, retinoic acid and retinyl acetate were found to have similar binding affinities to both species of carrier proteins: For retinol, Kd = 1.9 x lop7 M with humanretinol binding protein and Kh = 1.

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Relating thermodynamic parameters to structural and biochemical data allows a better understanding of substrate binding and its contribution to catalysis. The analysis of the binding of carbohydrates to proteins or enzymes is a special challenge because of the multiple interactions and forces involved. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) provides a direct measure of binding enthalpy (⌬H a) and allows the determination of the binding constant (free energy), entropy, and stoichiometry. In this study, we used ITC to elucidate the binding thermodynamics of xylosaccharides for two xylanases of family 10 isolated from Geobacillus stearothermophilus T-6. The change in the heat capacity of binding (⌬C p ‫؍‬ ⌬H͞⌬T) for xylosaccharides differing in one sugar unit was determined by using ITC measurements at different temperatures. Because hydrophobic stacking interactions are associated with negative ⌬C p, the data allow us to predict the substrate binding preference in the binding subsites based on the crystal structure of the enzyme. The proposed positional binding preference was consistent with mutants lacking aromatic binding residues at different subsites and was also supported by tryptophan fluorescence analysis.

This study investigates the potential use of attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy in the mid-infrared range for determining protein concentration in raw cow milk. The determination of protein concentration is based on the characteristic absorbance of milk proteins, which includes 2 absorbance bands in the 1500 to 1700 cm(-1) range, known as the amide I and amide II bands, and absorbance in the 1060 to 1100 cm(-1) range, which is associated with phosphate groups covalently bound to casein proteins. To minimize the influence of the strong water band (centered around 1640 cm(-1)) that overlaps with the amide I and amide II bands, an optimized automatic procedure for accurate water subtraction was applied. Following water subtraction, the spectra were analyzed by 3 methods, namely simple band integration, partial least squares (PLS) and neural networks. For the neural network models, the spectra were first decomposed by principal component analysis (PCA), and the neural network inputs were the spectra principal components scores. In addition, the concentrations of 2 constituents expected to interact with the protein (i.e., fat and lactose) were also used as inputs. These approaches were tested with 235 spectra of standardized raw milk samples, corresponding to 26 protein concentrations in the 2.47 to 3.90% (weight per volume) range. The simple integration method led to very poor results, whereas PLS resulted in prediction errors of about 0.22% protein. The neural network approach led to prediction errors of 0.20% protein when based on PCA scores only, and 0.08% protein when lactose and fat concentrations were also included in the model. These results indicate the potential usefulness of Fourier transform infrared/attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy for rapid, possibly online, determination of protein concentration in raw milk.

The association behavior, critical micellization concentration (CMC), and enthalpy of demicellization (DeltaHdemic) of bovine beta-casein were studied, for the first time by isothermal titration calorimetry, in a pH 7.0 phosphate buffer with 0.1 ionic strength and in pure water. In the buffer solutions, the CMC decreased asymptotically from 0.15 to 0.006 mM as the temperature was raised from 16 to 45 degrees C. DeltaHdemic decreased with increasing temperature between 16 and 28 degrees C but increased from 28 to 45 degrees C. Thermodynamic analysis below 30 degrees C is consistent with the Kegeles shell model, which suggests a stepwise association process. At higher temperatures, this model exhibits limitations, and the micellization becomes much more cooperative. The CMC values in water, measured between 17 and 28 degrees C, decreased with increasing temperature and, expectedly, were higher than those found in the buffer solutions. beta-Casein micelles were visualized and characterized, for the first time in their hydrated state, using advanced digital-imaging cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. The images revealed small, oblate micelles, about approximately 13 nm in diameter. The micelles shape and dimensions remained nearly constant in the temperature range of 24-35 degrees C.