pH Responsive Microdomain Formation in a De Novo Polypeptide

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-15-1997

Department

Polymers and High Performance Materials

Abstract

Recombinant DNA technology has been employed to produce a polypeptide capable of forming pH responsive hydrophobic microdomains. The design of this peptide is based upon an idealized conceptual model in which electrostatic, hydrophobic, and hydration forces are responsible far the association of amphipathic ct-helical elements. Reduction in solution pH is responsible for reducing electrostatic repulsions between similar-ly charged residues, promoting the hydrophobic collapse of helical elements. A polymerizable synthetic element (dn31) has been synthesized and inserted into an appropriate expression vector. A clone containing a single copy of the dn31 gene (designated dn31x1) was isolated and the corresponding gene product DN3Lx1 isolated. The physical properties of DN3Lx1 were examined in solution by gel filtration chromatography, CD, and fluorescence probe analysis. It was determined that DN3Lx1 self-associates in solution with the degree of aggregation dependent on pH and ionic strength. An initial objective of this work was to examine domain organization in higher molecular weight species containing ten or more repetitive sequences. However, attempts to express multiple repeats of DN3Lxn from concatemers were unsuccessful. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Publication Title

Biopolymers

Volume

41

Issue

5

First Page

521

Last Page

532

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