Acquisition of Shared Spectropolarimeter for CD Studies

该提案要求获得强大和高灵敏度的CD光谱设备的支持。所有的项目都涉及使用重组DNA技术来产生重组蛋白（神经生长因子）、转羧化酶亚基、葡萄糖激酶和逆转录病毒核衣壳蛋白。我们建议确定这些重组蛋白的结构和功能，并将其与天然蛋白的相应性质进行比较；很明显，在解释任何功能变化之前，必须对结构特性进行评估。这类研究需要比较天然蛋白和重组蛋白的CD光谱，以及功能研究。因此，我们需要使用具有高灵敏度和低波长的分光偏振计来对少量样品（通常是天然蛋白质）进行定量评估。灵敏度对于监测核衣壳蛋白与核酸的结合也很重要，通过跟踪来自核酸的CD带的振幅。目前，学校无法使用所要求的CD仪器，因为现有的分光偏振仪已经过时，功能不全。如果时间允许，所要求的仪器将提供给校园内任何其他合格的用户。

This proposal requests support to obtain powerful and highly sensitive CD spectroscopic equipment. All of the projects involve the use of recombinant DNA technology to generate recombinant proteins (nerve growth factor), transcarboxylase subunits, glucokinase, and the retroviral nucleocapsid protein. We propose to determine the structure and function of these recombinant proteins and to compare them with the corresponding properties of the native protein; it is clear that the structural properties must be evaluated before any functional changes can be interpreted. Such studies require the comparison of CD spectra from native and recombinant proteins, as well as functional studies. Thus we require access to a spectropolarimeter capable of high sensivity and low wavelength for quantitative evaluation of small amounts of sample (frequently of the native protein). Sensitivity is also important for the monitoring of nucleocapsid protein binding to nucleic acid by following the amplitude of the CD band from the nucleic acid. Currently access to the requested CD instrumentation is unavailable on campus, because the resident spectropolarimeter is out of date and inadequate. The requested instrument will be available to serve any other qualified user on campus, time permitting.