• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.167-170
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• 2006

Bovine adenosine deaminase undergoes a nondenaturational conformational change at $29^{\circ}C$ upon heating which is characterized by a large increase in heat capacity. We have determined the transition state thermodynamics of the conformational change using a novel application of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) which employs very slow scan rates. DSC scans at the conventional, and arbitrary, scan rate of $1^{\circ}C/min$ show no evidence of the transition. Scan rates from 0.030 to $0.20^{\circ}C/min$ reveal the transition indicating it is under kinetic control. The transition temperature $T_t$ and the transition temperature interval ${\Delta}T$ increase with scan rate. A first order rate constant $k_1$ is calculated at each $T_t$ from $k_1\;=\;r_{scan}/{\Delta}T$, where $r_{scan}$ is the scan rate, and an Arrhenius plot is constructed. Standard transition state analysis reveals an activation free energy ${\Delta}G^{\neq}$ of 88.1 kJ/mole and suggests that the conformational change has an unfolding quality that appears to be on the direct path to the physiological-temperature conformer.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.205-211
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• 2007

The stability curve - a plot of the Gibbs free energy of unfolding versus temperature - is calculated for bovine erythrocyte carbonic anhydrase in 150 mM sodium phosphate (pH = 7.0) from a combination of reversible differential scanning calorimetry measurements and isothermal guanidine hydrochloride titrations. The enzyme possesses two stable folded conformers with the conformational transition occurring at ~30$^{\circ}C$. The methodology yields a stability curve for the complete unfolding of the enzyme below this temperature but only the partial unfolding, to the molten globule state, above it. The transition state thermodynamics for the low- to physiological-temperature conformational change are calculated from slow-scan-rate differential scanning calorimetry measurements where it is found that the free energy barrier for the conversion is 90 kJ/mole and the transition state possesses a substantial unfolding quality. The data therefore suggest that the x-ray structure may differ considerably from the physiological structure and that the two conformers are not readily interconverted.