Abstract
Cytochrome c folding was initiated using a new solution mixer that provides a time window which covers over 90% of the burst phase unresolved by conventional stop-flow measurements. Folding was followed by resonance Raman scattering. Kinetic analysis of the high frequency Raman data indicates that a nascent phase occurs within the mixing dead time of 100 μs. A significant fraction of the protein was found to be trapped in a misfolded bis-histidine form during the nascent phase at pH 4.5, thereby preventing the protein from folding rapidly and homogeneously. The nascent phase was followed by a haem-ligand exchange phase that populates the native histidine-methionine coordinated form through a thermodynamically controlled equilibrium.
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Takahashi, S., Yeh, SR., Das, T. et al. Folding of cytochrome c initiated by submillisecond mixing. Nat Struct Mol Biol 4, 44–50 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsb0197-44
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsb0197-44