A MOLECULAR RULER FOR DIRECT MEASUREMENT OF DISTANCE DISTRIBUTIONS IN SOLUTIONS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. To gain insight into the molecular events that underlie protein folding, knowledge of the tertiary structure of folding intermediates and molten globules would be extremely informative. However, conventional crystallographic and magnetic resonance techniques cannot characterize the dynamic, three-dimensional conformational ensembles that compose these states. While time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) studies can give some information on distance distributions, such analyses rely on assumptions about FRET dye orientations and the shapes of the distributions (generally Gaussian). We propose to use small-angle X-ray scattering in conjunction with heavy-atom replacement (SAXS-HR) to determine directly intramolecular distance distributions in heavy-atom duster labeled biomolecules. The results will constrain molecular-dynamics simulations to provide three-dimensional pictures of protein folding intermediates and molten globules. We propose to perform a proof of principle' test of the SAXS-HR technique: measurements on DNA duplexes and flexible DNA single strands labeled with nanogold clusters will demonstrate that site-specific distance distributions can be recovered by SAXS-HR. These experiments will provide a foundation for studies of the tertiary structure present in the apomyoglobin molten globule folding intermediate.