Toward resolution of ambiguity for the unfolded state

Salt-Induced Transformations of Hybrid Micelles Formed by Anionic Surfactant and Poly(4-vinylpyridine)

Salt-induced structural transformation of charged hybrid surfactant/polymer micelles formed by potassium oleate and poly(4-vinylpyridine) was investigated by cryo-TEM, SANS with contrast variation, DLS, and 2D NOESY. Cryo-TEM data show, that at small salt concentration beads-on-string aggregates on polymer chains are formed. KCl induces the transformation of those aggregates into rods, which is due to the screening of the electrostatic repulsion between similarly charged beads by added salt. In a certain range of salt concentration, the beads-on-string aggregates coexist with the rodlike ones. In the presence of polymer, the sphere-to-rod transition occurs at higher salt concentration than in pure surfactant system indicating that hydrophobic polymer favors the spherical packing of potassium oleate molecules. The size of micelles was estimated by DLS. The rods that are formed in the hybrid system are much shorter than those in polymer-free surfactant solution suggesting the stabilization of the semi-spherical endcaps of the rods by embedded polymer. 2D NOESY data evidence that in the spherical aggregates the polymer penetrates deep into the core, whereas in tighter packed rodlike aggregates it is located mainly at core/corona interface. According to SANS with contrast variation, inside the rodlike aggregates the polymer adopts more compact coil conformation than in the beads-on-string aggregates. Such adaptive self-assembled polymer-surfactant nanoparticles with water-insoluble polymer are very promising for various applications including drag reduction at transportation of fluids.

X-ray scattering as an effective tool for characterizing liquid metal composite morphology

Quantitative analysis of particle size and size distribution is crucial in establishing structure-property relationships of composite materials. An emerging soft composite architecture involves dispersing droplets of liquid metal throughout an elastomer, enabling synergistic properties of metals and soft polymers. The structure of these materials is typically characterized through real-space microscopy and image analysis; however, these techniques rely on magnified images that may not represent the global-averaged size and distribution of the droplets. In this study, we utilize ultra-small angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) as a reciprocal-space characterization technique that yields global-averaged dimensions of eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) alloy soft composites. The Unified fit and Monte Carlo scattering methods are applied to determine the particle size and size distributions of the liquid metal droplets in the composites and are shown to be in excellent agreement with results from real-space image analysis. Additionally, all methods indicate that the droplets are getting larger as they are introduced into composites, suggesting that the droplets are agglomerating or possibly coalescing during dispersion. This work demonstrates the viability of X-ray scattering to elucidate structural information about liquid metal droplets for material development for applications in soft robotics, soft electronics, and multifunctional materials.

A quantitative structural characterisation of active semiconducting materials (mSi; SiO2; Al2O3; TiO2) for use in printed electronics using a combination of Small Angle Light Scattering (SALS) and Ultra Small Angle X-ray Scattering (USAXS)

Four nanostructured active semiconducting materials currently used in electronic inks have been structurally characterised using a combination of small angle scattering techniques and scanning electron microscopy. The percolation theory and scaling laws have been used to obtain quantitative correlations of the network topologies and the local micro-structures with the electronic and electrical properties of the printed, electronic devices. The small angle light scattering has been used to expand the lower q-range of the Ultra Small Angle x-ray Scattering curves of the 2503 metallurgical grade silicon (mSi), silicon dioxide (SiO₂), aluminium dioxide (Al₂O₃) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) materials by close to an order of magnitude, thereby providing valuable clustering properties for each material. Each scattering curve presented a series of multiple structural levels, which are then quantified using the Unified power-law approach to provide valuable clustering characteristics such as the degree of aggregation, polydispersity and geometry standard deviation. Subsequently, a fully screen-printed field effect transistor that uses mSi as the active material is demonstrated. The transistor had an ON/OFF current-ratio of 10⁴; an electron mobility of 0.7 cm²/V s; a leakage current in the order of 5 × 10^-9 A, and no current saturation.

Higher order assembling of the mycobacterial polar growth factor DivIVA/Wag31

DivIVA or Wag31, which is an essential pole organizing protein in mycobacteria, can self-assemble at the negatively curved side of the membrane at the growing pole to form a higher order structural scaffold for maintaining cellular morphology and localizing various target proteins for cell-wall biogenesis. The structural organization of polar scaffold formed by polymerization of coiled-coil rich Wag31, which is implicated in the anti-tubercular activities of amino-pyrimidine sulfonamides, remains to be determined. A single-site phosphorylation in Wag31 regulates peptidoglycan biosynthesis in mycobacteria. We report biophysical characterizations of filaments formed by mycobacterial Wag31 using circular dichroism, atomic force microscopy and small angle solution X-ray scattering. Atomic force microscopic images of the wild-type, a phospho-mimetic (T73E) and a phospho-ablative (T73A) form of Wag31 show mostly linear filament formation with occasional curving, kinking and apparent branching. Solution X-ray scattering data indicates that the phospho-mimetic forms of the Wag31 polymers are on average more compact than their phospho-ablative counterparts, which is likely due to the extent of bending/branching. Observed structural features in this first view of Wag31 filaments suggest a basis for higher order Wag31 scaffold formation at the pole.

Minimal effects of macromolecular crowding on an intrinsically disordered protein: a small-angle neutron scattering study

Small-angle neutron scattering was used to study the effects of macromolecular crowding by two globular proteins, i.e., bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor and equine metmyoglobin, on the conformational ensemble of an intrinsically disordered protein, the N protein of bacteriophage λ. The λ N protein was uniformly labeled with (2)H, and the concentrations of D2O in the samples were adjusted to match the neutron scattering contrast of the unlabeled crowding proteins, thereby masking their contribution to the scattering profiles. Scattering from the deuterated λ N was recorded for samples containing up to 0.12 g/mL bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor or 0.2 g/mL metmyoglobin. The radius of gyration of the uncrowded protein was estimated to be 30 Å and was found to be remarkably insensitive to the presence of crowders, varying by <2 Å for the highest crowder concentrations. The scattering profiles were also used to estimate the fractal dimension of λ N, which was found to be ∼1.8 in the absence or presence of crowders, indicative of a well-solvated and expanded random coil under all of the conditions examined. These results are contrary to the predictions of theoretical treatments and previous experimental studies demonstrating compaction of unfolded proteins by crowding with polymers such as dextran and Ficoll. A computational simulation suggests that some previous treatments may have overestimated the effective volumes of disordered proteins and the variation of these volumes within an ensemble. The apparent insensitivity of λ N to crowding may also be due in part to weak attractive interactions with the crowding proteins, which may compensate for the effects of steric exclusion.

NMR insights into folding and self-association of Plasmodium falciparum P2

The eukaryotic 60S-ribosomal stalk is composed of acidic ribosomal proteins (P1 and P2) and neutral protein P0, which are thought to be associated as a pentameric structure, [2P1, 2P2, P0]. Plasmodium falciparum P2 (PfP2) appears to play additional non-ribosomal functions associated with its tendency for homo-oligomerization. Recombinant bacterially expressed PfP2 protein also undergoes self-association, as shown by SDS-PAGE analysis and light scattering studies. Secondary structure prediction algorithms predict the native PfP2 protein to be largely helical and this is corroborated by circular dichroism investigation. The ¹H-¹⁵N HSQC spectrum of native P2 showed only 43 cross peaks compared to the expected 138. The observed peaks were found to belong to the C-terminal region, suggesting that this segment is flexible and solvent exposed. In 9 M urea denaturing conditions the chain exhibited mostly non-native β structural propensity. ¹⁵N Relaxation data for the denatured state indicated substantial variation in ms-µs time scale motion along the chain. Average area buried upon folding (AABUF) calculations on the monomer enabled identification of hydrophobic patches along the sequence. Interestingly, the segments of slower motion in the denatured state coincided with these hydrophobic patches, suggesting that in the denatured state the monomeric chain undergoes transient hydrophobic collapse. The implications of these results for the folding mechanism and self-association of PfP2 are discussed.

Fractal dimension of an intrinsically disordered protein: small-angle X-ray scattering and computational study of the bacteriophage λ N protein

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was used to characterize the bacteriophage λ N protein, a 107 residue intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) that functions as a transcriptional antitermination factor. The SAXS data were used to estimate both the average radius of gyration and the fractal dimension, a measure of the protein's internal scaling properties, under a variety of solution conditions. In the absence of denaturants, the radius of gyration was 38 ± 3.5 Å and the fractal dimension was 1.76 ± 0.05, slightly larger than the value predicted for a well-solvated polymer with excluded volume (1.7). Neither the radius of gyration nor the fractal dimension changed significantly on the addition of urea, further indicating that the protein is extensively unfolded and well solvated in the absence of denaturant. The addition of NaCl or D(2) O was found to promote aggregation, but did not appear to affect the properties of the monomeric form. The experimental SAXS profiles were also compared with those predicted by a computational model for a random-coil polypeptide, with an adjustable solvation energy term. The experimental data were well fit to the model with the solvation energy close to zero. These results indicate that the λ N protein is among the more expanded members of the broad class of IDPs, most likely because of its high content of charged residues and a large net charge (+15 at neutral pH). The expanded nature of the conformational ensemble may play a role in facilitating the interactions of the protein with other components of the dynamic transcriptional complex.

Effects of macromolecular crowding on an intrinsically disordered protein characterized by small-angle neutron scattering with contrast matching

Small-angle neutron scattering was used to examine the effects of molecular crowding on an intrinsically disordered protein, the N protein of bacteriophage λ, in the presence of high concentrations of a small globular protein, bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI). The N protein was labeled with deuterium, and the D(2)O concentration of the solvent was adjusted to eliminate the scattering contrast between the solvent and unlabeled BPTI, leaving only the scattering signal from the unfolded protein. The scattering profile observed in the absence of BPTI closely matched that predicted for an ensemble of random conformations. With BPTI added to a concentration of 65 mg/mL, there was a clear change in the scattering profile representing an increase in the mass fractal dimension of the unfolded protein, from 1.7 to 1.9, as expected if crowding favors more compact conformations. The crowding protein also inhibited aggregation of the unfolded protein. At 130 mg/mL BPTI, however, the fractal dimension was not significantly different from that measured at the lower concentration, contrary to the predictions of models that treat the unfolded conformations as convex particles. These results are reminiscent of the behavior of polymers in concentrated melts, suggesting that these synthetic mixtures may provide useful insights into the properties of unfolded proteins under crowding conditions.