Side-chain dynamics of a detergent-solubilized membrane protein: measurement of tryptophan and glutamine hydrogen-exchange rates in M13 coat protein by proton NMR spectroscopy

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Abstract
M13 coat protein is a small (50 amino acids) lipid-soluble protein that becomes an integral membrane protein during the infection stage of the life cycle of the M13 phage and is therefore used as a model membrane protein. To study side-chain dynamics in the protein, we have measured individual hydrogen-exchange rates for a primary amide in the side chain of glutamine-15 and for the indole amine of tryptophan-26. The protein was solubilized with the use of perdeuteriated sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and hydrogen-exchange rates were measured by using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The glutamine-15 syn proton exchanged at a rate identical with that in glutamine model peptides except that the pH corresponding to minimum exchange was elevated by about 1.5 pH units. The tryptophan-26 indole amine proton exchange was biphasic, suggesting that two populations of tryptophan-26 exist. Approximately one-fourth of the tryptophan-26 resonance intensity exchanged at the same rate as a tryptophan model peptide, whereas three-fourths of the tryptophan-26 resonance intensity exchanged about 1000-fold more slowly. It is suggested that the two populations may reflect protein dimerization or aggregation in the SDS micelles. The pH values of minimum exchange for tryptophan-26 in both environments were also elevated by 1.3-1.9 pH units. This phenomenon is reproduced when small tryptophan- and glutamine-containing hydrophobic peptides are dissolved in the presence of SDS micelles. The electrostatic nature of this phenomenon is proven by showing that the minimum pH for exchange can be reduced by dissolving the hydrophobic peptides in the positively charged detergent micelle dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide. A small hydrophobic effect, which involves the depression of base catalysis to a significantly greater extent than acid catalysis, was observed for some of the peptides solubilized with the neutral detergent octyl glucoside.

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