CIRCULAR DICHROISM AND THE CONFORMATION OF PROTEINS

我们研究的基本目的是确定分子的构象 利用圆二向色性(CD)光谱的生物聚合物及其相关 技巧。CD是一种很好的监控次要数据的技术 光学活性生物分子的结构，因为它非常 对最近邻发色团的取向很敏感，而且由于它 可以在这些分子处于溶液中时使用。的构象 生物分子有助于确定它们所经历的反应，并且 因此，我们希望了解分子构象之间的关系 这些分子及其生物学功能。与此同时，我们 我们正在调查构象，我们也在努力改善CD，两者 在实验和理论上都是如此，所以它会更有用。 在来年，我们将研究蛋白质的二级结构。 目前的利息。我们将使用我们在 过去几年从蛋白质中提取二级结构的研究进展 它的真空紫外CD光谱。我们将与适当的 以获得令人兴奋的蛋白质。我们计划改进我们的技术 通过在我们的基组中添加一些蛋白质并扩展光谱 所有蛋白质均为168 nm。我们还将用我们的方法来调查 简单蛋白质的变性如何决定二级结构 变性时就会散开。

The basic aim of our research is to determine the conformation of biopolymers using circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and related techniques. CD is an excellent technique for monitoring the secondary structure of optically active biological molecules, since it is very sensitive to the orientation of nearest neighbor chromophores and since it can be used when these molecules are in solution. The conformation of biological molecules helps determine the reactions which they undergo, and thus we expect to learn about the relationships between the conformation of these molecules and their biological function. At the same time that we are investigating conformation, we are also trying to improve CD, both experimentally and theoretically so that it will be more useful. During the coming year, we will study the secondary structure of proteins of current interest. We will use the methods that we have developed in the past few years for extracting the secondary structures in a protein from its vacuum UV CD spectrum. We will collaborate with appropriate individuals to obtain exciting proteins. We plan to improve our techniques by adding a number of proteins to our basis set and extending the spectra of all proteins to 168 nm. We will also use our methods to investigate the denaturation of simple proteins to determine how the secondary structures come apart on denaturation.