Macromolecular Crowding-Induced Molten Globule State of Acid-Denatured Horse Cytochrome c

Abstract

This work examined the effect of concentration and size of crowding agents (dextran 40 and dextran 70) on structure, stability and folding of acid-denatured ferricytochrome c at pH 2.0. As [dextran] is increased in the UA state , the intensity of flouroscence emission spectra decreases, which indicates molecular compaction of UA state. The crowding agents stabilize and refold the acid-denatured ferricytochrome c (pH 2.0) to MG-states. The acid-denatured ferricytochrome c also gains substantial secondary structure content but not acquire tertiary structure content in the presence of high concentrations of crowding agent.