Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Journal articles
  4. Cold denaturation of yeast frataxin offers the clue to understand the effect of alcohols on protein stability
 
research article

Cold denaturation of yeast frataxin offers the clue to understand the effect of alcohols on protein stability

Martin, Stephen R.
•
Esposito, Veronica
•
De Los Rios, Paolo  
Show more
2008
Journal Of The American Chemical Society

Although alcohols are well-known to be protein denaturants when present at high concentrations, their effect on proteins at low concentrations is much less well characterized. In this paper, we present a study of the effects of alcohols on protein stability using Yfh1, the yeast ortholog of the human protein frataxin. Exploiting the unusual property of this protein of undergoing cold denaturation around 0 degrees C without any ad hoc destabilization, we determined the stability curve on the basis of both high and low temperature unfolding in the presence of three commonly used alcohols: trifluoroethanol, ethanol, and methanol. In all cases, we observed an extended temperature range of protein stability as determined by a modest increase of the high temperature of unfolding but an appreciable decrease in the low temperature of unfolding. On the basis of simple thermodynamic considerations, we are able to interpret the literature on the effects of alcohols on proteins and to generalize our findings. We suggest that alcohols, at low concentration and physiological pH, stabilize proteins by greatly widening the range of temperatures over which the protein is stable. Our results also clarify the molecular mechanism of the interaction and validate the current theoretical interpretation of the mechanism of cold denaturation.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/ja803280e
Web of Science ID

WOS:000257902500060

Author(s)
Martin, Stephen R.
Esposito, Veronica
De Los Rios, Paolo  
Pastore, Annalisa
Temussi, Piero Andrea
Date Issued

2008

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Published in
Journal Of The American Chemical Society
Volume

130

Start page

9963

End page

9970

Subjects

Egg-White Lysozyme

•

Aqueous-Solutions

•

Nmr-Spectroscopy

•

Low-Temperature

•

Iron-Binding

•

Water

•

Trifluoroethanol

•

Thermodynamics

•

Mixtures

•

Peptides

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LBS  
Available on Infoscience
March 16, 2010
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/48187
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés