Diffusion-limited contact formation in unfolded cytochrome c: estimating the maximum rate of protein folding.
- 15 October 1996
- journal article
- editorial
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 93 (21), 11615-11617
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.93.21.11615
Abstract
How fast can a protein fold? The rate of polypeptide collapse to a compact state sets an upper limit to the rate of folding. Collapse may in turn be limited by the rate of intrachain diffusion. To address this question, we have determined the rate at which two regions of an unfolded protein are brought into contact by diffusion. Our nanosecond-resolved spectroscopy shows that under strongly denaturing conditions, regions of unfolded cytochrome separated by approximately 50 residues diffuse together in 35-40 microseconds. This result leads to an estimate of approximately (1 microsecond)-1 as the upper limit for the rate of protein folding.This publication has 31 references indexed in Scilit:
- Protein Folding Triggered by Electron TransferScience, 1996
- Analysis of the Structure of Ribonuclease A in Native and Partially Denatured States by Time-Resolved Nonradiative Dynamic Excitation Energy Transfer between Site-Specific Extrinsic ProbesBiochemistry, 1995
- Folding of a four-helix bundle: studies of acyl-coenzyme A binding proteinBiochemistry, 1995
- Fast folding of a prototypic polypeptide: The immunoglobulin binding domain of streptococcal protein GProtein Science, 1994
- Kinetic Mechanism of Cytochrome c Folding: Involvement of the Heme and Its LigandsBiochemistry, 1994
- The barriers in protein foldingNature Structural & Molecular Biology, 1994
- Kinetic analysis of folding and unfolding the 56 amino acid IgG-binding domain of streptococcal protein GBiochemistry, 1992
- Protein-folding dynamicsNature, 1976
- On the probability of ring closure of lambda DNAJournal of Molecular Biology, 1966
- Thermodynamic and kinetic studies on the interconversion between the linear and circular forms of phage lambda DNAJournal of Molecular Biology, 1966