期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2004
卷号：101
期号：44
页码：15639-15644
DOI：10.1073/pnas.0404895101
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Folding experiments are conducted to test whether a covalently cross-linked coiled-coil folds so quickly that the process is no longer limited by a free-energy barrier. This protein is very stable and topologically simple, needing merely to "zipper up," while having an extrapolated folding rate of kf = 2 x 105 s-1. These properties make it likely to attain the elusive "downhill folding" limit, at which a series of intermediates can be characterized. To measure the ultra-fast kinetics in the absence of denaturant, we apply NMR and hydrogen-exchange methods. The stability and its denaturant dependence for the hydrogen bonds in the central part of protein equal the values calculated for whole-molecule unfolding. Like-wise, their closing and opening rates indicate that these hydrogen bonds are broken and reformed in a single cooperative event representing the folding transition from the fully unfolded state to the native state. Additionally, closing rates for these hydrogen bonds agree with the extrapolated barrier-limited folding rate observed near the melting transition. Therefore, even in the absence of denaturant, where {Delta}Geq {approx} -6 kcal{middle dot}mol-1 (1 cal = 4.18 J) and {tau}f {approx} 6 {micro}s, folding remains cooperative and barrier-limited. Given that this prime candidate for downhill folding fails to do so, we propose that protein folding will remain barrier-limited for proteins that fold cooperatively.
