Studies of molecular crowding

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1. The effect of urea and trimethyl-N-amine oxide (TMAO) upon the heteroassociation of alpha-chymotrypsin (chy) and soybean trypsin inhibitor (STI) was studied by measurement of fluorescence depolarization. STI was labeled with Alexa-488 and titrated with chy. The dependence of the rotational relaxation time of labeled STI upon the concentration of added chy was interpreted in the context of a model in which chy could bind to two independent sites on STI with approximately equal affinity. Titrations were conducted in the presence of various added concentrations of urea and TMAO, and it was found that while added urea tended to inhibit the association of chy and STI, TMAO enhanced the association. Analysis of the dependence of results upon the concentrations of added urea and TMAO showed that the two effects, although in opposite directions, were additive. (D. Wu) 2. The overall effect of a concentrated crowding agent upon a model for self-association of a dilute reactant was analyzed as the sum of the effects of both excluded volume and attractive interactions between the crowding agent and the reactant species. (A. Minton)