• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.427-434
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• 2019

The role of hydrophobic residues on protein folding reaction was studied by folding kinetics measurements in conjunction with protein engineering. The HubWA, which was derived from human ubiquitin by mutating the residues at 45 (Phe to Trp) and 26 (Val to Ala), was used as a mutational background. Fourteen hydrophobic residues were mutated to alanine. Among fourteen variants generated, only four variant proteins (V5A, I13A, V17A, and I36A) were suitable for folding study. The folding kinetics of these variants was measured by stopped-flow fluorescence spectroscopy. The folding kinetics of HubWA and V17A was observed to follow a three-state on-pathway mechanism. On the other hand, folding kinetics of V5A, I13A, and I36A was observed to follow a two-state mechanism. Based on these observations, transition of protein folding reaction from collision-diffusion mechanism to nucleation-condensation mechanism was discussed.