Volume 50, Issue 46 pp. 10884-10887
Communication

Achieving Secondary Structural Resolution in Kinetic Measurements of Protein Folding: A Case Study of the Folding Mechanism of Trp-cage

Robert M. Culik

Robert M. Culik

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania (USA)

These authors contributed equally.

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Arnaldo L. Serrano

Arnaldo L. Serrano

Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 231 S. 34 Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (USA)

These authors contributed equally.

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Prof. Dr. Michelle R. Bunagan

Corresponding Author

Prof. Dr. Michelle R. Bunagan

Department of Chemistry, College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ 08628 (USA)

Michelle R. Bunagan, Department of Chemistry, College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ 08628 (USA)

Feng Gai, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 231 S. 34 Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (USA)

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Prof. Dr. Feng Gai

Corresponding Author

Prof. Dr. Feng Gai

Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 231 S. 34 Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (USA)

Michelle R. Bunagan, Department of Chemistry, College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ 08628 (USA)

Feng Gai, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 231 S. 34 Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (USA)

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First published: 29 September 2011
Citations: 56

We thank the National Institutes of Health (GM-065978, RR01348, and GM-008275) for funding. R.M.C. acknowledges a training grant in structural biology.

Graphical Abstract

A new twist: A multi-probe and multi-frequency approach is shown for dissecting the folding dynamics of individual protein structural elements. In response to a temperature jump the 310-helix (blue in the picture) of the miniprotein Trp-cage unfolds before the global unfolding of the protein, whereas the formation of the cage structure depends on the folding of the α-helix (red).

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