Pretransition and progressive softening of bovine carbonic anhydrase II as probed by single molecule atomic force microscopy.

ABSTRACT: To develop a simple method for probing the physical state of surface adsorbed proteins, we adopted the force curve mode of an atomic force microscope (AFM) to extract information on the mechanical properties of surface immobilized bovine carbonic anhydrase II under native conditions and in the course of guanidinium chloride-induced denaturation. A progressive increase in the population of individually softened molecules was probed under mildly to fully denaturing conditions. The use of the approach regime of force curves gave information regarding the height and rigidity of the molecule under compressive stress, whereas use of the retracting regime of the curves gave information about the tensile characteristics of the protein. The results showed that protein molecules at the beginning of

SUBMITTER: Afrin R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2253376 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature