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Thermal stability of hydrophobic heme pocket variants of oxidized cytochrome c

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1999

JOHN R. LIGGINS
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900 Present address: Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218-2685.
TERENCE P. LO
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada Present address: Department of Molecular Biology, MB-4, Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037.
GARY D. BRAYER
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z3, Canada
BARRY T. NALL
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900
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Abstract

Microcalorimetry has been used to measure the stabilities of mutational variants of yeast iso-1 cytochrome c in which F82 and L85 have been replaced by other hydrophobic amino acids. Specifically, F82 has been replaced by Y and L85 by A. The double mutant F82Y, L85A iso-1 has also been studied, and the mutational perturbations are compared to those for the two single mutants, F82Y iso-1 and L85A iso-1. Results are interpreted in terms of known crystallographic structures. The data show that (1) the destabilization of the mutant proteins is similar in magnitude to that which is theoretically predicted by the more obvious mutation-induced structural effects; (2) the free energy of destabilization of the double mutant, F82Y, L85A iso-1, is less than the sum of those of the two single mutants, almost certainly because, in the double mutant, the -OH group of Y82 is able to protrude into the cavity formed by the L85A substitution. The more favorable structural accommodation of the new -OH group in the double mutant leads to additional stability through (1) further decreases in the volumes of internal cavities and (2) formation of an extra protein–protein hydrogen bond.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 The Protein Society

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