Recent developments in the stopped-flow method for the study of fast reactions

Circular dichroism and its use in protein-folding studies

The way in which proteins fold into the complex 3 dimensional structures that are responsible for their function is a subject of great practical as well as fundamental significance because of the involvement of folding and misfolding in a number of serious human and animal diseases. Ultraviolet circular dichroism (CD) reports on the secondary and tertiary structure of proteins. Measurements can be made on proteins in the solution phase, and critically time-resolved measurements can be made with millisecond resolution. This combination of characteristics makes CD a useful tool for investigating protein folding, and indeed any process involving changes in protein structure. Experimental methods for a typical time-resolved CD experiment are described, and some common problems identified.

An attachment for nondestructive, fast quenching of samples in rapid-mixing experiments

The present paper describes a quenching-and-washing chamber (QWC) to be used with a rapid-mixing apparatus (RMA) for the study of processes in the millisecond time scale. The QWC enables fast, nondestructive quenching by cooling and dilution of reactants in particulate systems that can be trapped on a filter. The reaction mixture (e.g., at 25 degrees C) is injected from the RMA into the QWC where it is immediately mixed with a stream of ice-cold solution flowing at a rate of 15-40 ml s-1. Quenching requires that the process studied is slowed considerably by cooling to 0-2 degrees C and/or by removal of reactants by dilution. The equipment was characterized through a study of the tight binding (occlusion) of 86Rb+ to purified, membrane-bound Na+/K+-ATPase. Millipore filters of 0.22-0.80 microm pore size trapped close to 100% of the enzyme protein. Enzyme with occluded 86Rb+ was formed in the RMA under conditions where the rate constant for release of Rb+ at 25 degrees C is up to 25 s-1 and then injected into the QWC. The high off-rate constant is due to the presence of 2.5 mM ATP, which accelerates release of Rb+. The recovery of occluded 86Rb+ on the filter was at least 90%, indicating that both cooling of the reactants and dilution of ATP are fast enough to stop the reaction. The quenching time was 3-4 ms.

Kinetic studies on the binding of 1,N6-etheno-NAD+ to glutamate dehydrogenase from Clostridium symbiosum

The mechanism of the binding of reduced coenzyme (NAD+) to clostridial glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) was determined by transient kinetics. The fluorescent 1,N6-ethenoadenine analogue of NAD+ (epsilonNAD+) was used as a probe of nucleotide binary and ternary complex formation because the binding of NAD+ is optically silent. The kinetics of epsilonNAD+ binding were consistent with a 3-step binding process. The enzyme was found to oscillate between two conformational forms, termed E1 and E2, in the presence and absence of L-glutamate. However, L-glutamate shifted the equilibrium from 96.8% to 99% of the enzyme in the E1 form. The rapid-equilibrium binding of epsilonNAD+ to the E2 form was rate limited by a slow isomerisation of the ternary complex as the binary complex became saturated with epsilonNAD+. The L-glutamate binary complex had a greater affinity for the coenzyme (Kd = 11 microM) than the free enzyme (Km = 39 microM), indicative of a positive interaction of the substrate and coenzyme binding sites. Steady-state studies were also indicative of a positive interaction in the formation of the catalytic complex, with this complex having a Kd for epsilonNAD+ of 6.8 microM. Consequently, there is stabilization of successive complexes on the reaction pathway.