One β Hairpin Follows the Other: Exploring Refolding Pathways and Kinetics of the Transmembrane β-Barrel Protein OmpG

Single-Molecule Force Spectroscopy of Protein Folding

The use of force probes to induce unfolding and refolding of single molecules through the application of mechanical tension, known as single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS), has proven to be a powerful tool for studying the dynamics of protein folding. Here we provide an overview of what has been learned about protein folding using SMFS, from small, single-domain proteins to large, multi-domain proteins. We highlight the ability of SMFS to measure the energy landscapes underlying folding, to map complex pathways for native and non-native folding, to probe the mechanisms of chaperones that assist with native folding, to elucidate the effects of the ribosome on co-translational folding, and to monitor the folding of membrane proteins.

Control of the conductance of engineered protein nanopores through concerted loop motions

Protein nanopores have attracted much interest for nucleic acid sequencing, chemical sensing, and protein folding at the single molecule level. The outer membrane protein OmpG from E. coli stands out because it forms a nanopore from a single polypeptide chain. This property allows the separate engineering of each of the seven extracellular loops that control access to the pore. The longest of these loops, loop 6, has been recognized as the main gating loop that closes the pore at low pH values and opens it at high pH values. A method was devised to pin each of the loops to the embedding membrane and measure the single-pore conductances of the resulting constructs. The electrophysiological and complementary NMR measurements show that the pinning of individual loops alters the structure and dynamics of neighboring and distant loops in a correlated fashion. Pinning loop 6 generates a constitutively open pore and patterns of concerted loop motions control access to the OmpG nanopore.