Transition state heterogeneity in GCN4 coiled coil folding studied by using multisite mutations and crosslinking. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • We have investigated the folding behavior of dimeric and covalently crosslinked versions of the 33-residue alpha-helical GCN4-p1 coiled coil derived from the leucine zipper region of the transcriptional activator GCN4. The effects of multisite substitutions indicate that folding occurs along multiple routes with nucleation sites located throughout the protein. The similarity in activation energies of the different routes together with an analysis of intrinsic helical propensities indicate that minimal helix is present before a productive collision of the two chains. However, approximately one-third to one-half of the total helical structure is formed in the postcollision transition state ensemble. For the crosslinked, monomeric version, folding occurs along a single robust pathway. Here, the region nearest the crosslink, with the least helical propensity, is structured in the transition state whereas the region farthest from the tether, with the most propensity, is completely unstructured. Hence, the existence of transition state heterogeneity and the selection of folding routes critically depend on chain topology.

publication date

  • September 14, 1999

Research

keywords

  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Fungal Proteins
  • Protein Kinases
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC17946

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0032843763

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1073/pnas.96.19.10699

PubMed ID

  • 10485889

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 96

issue

  • 19