Thermochemistry of protein-DNA interaction studied with temperature-controlled nonequilibrium capillary electrophoresis of equilibrium mixtures

Anal Chem. 2005 Mar 1;77(5):1526-9. doi: 10.1021/ac048577c.

Abstract

We introduce temperature-controlled nonequilibrium capillary electrophoresis of equilibrium mixtures (NECEEM) and demonstrate its use to study thermochemistry of protein-DNA interactions. Being a homogeneous kinetic method, temperature-controlled NECEEM uniquely allows finding temperature dependencies of equilibrium and kinetic parameters of complex formation without the immobilization of the interacting molecules on the surface of a solid substrate. In this work, we applied temperature-controlled NECEEM to study the thermochemistry of two protein-DNA pairs: (i) Taq DNA polymerase with its DNA aptamer and (ii) E. coli single-stranded DNA binding protein with a 20-base-long single-stranded DNA. We determined temperature dependencies of three parameters: the equilibrium binding constant (Kb), the rate constant of complex dissociation (k(off)), and the rate constant of complex formation (k(on)). The Kb(T) functions for both protein-DNA pairs had phase-transition-like points suggesting temperature-dependent conformational changes in structures of the interacting macromolecules. Temperature dependencies of k(on) and k(off) provided insights into how the conformational changes affected two opposite processes: binding and dissociation. Finally, thermodynamic parameters, DeltaH and DeltaS, for complex formation were found for different conformations. With its unique features and potential applicability to other macromolecular interactions, temperature-controlled NECEEM establishes a valuable addition to the arsenal of analytical methods used to study dynamic molecular complexes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / chemistry
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / metabolism
  • Base Sequence
  • DNA / chemistry*
  • DNA / metabolism
  • DNA, Single-Stranded / chemistry
  • DNA, Single-Stranded / metabolism
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / chemistry
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Electrophoresis, Capillary / methods*
  • Escherichia coli Proteins / chemistry
  • Escherichia coli Proteins / metabolism
  • Kinetics
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • Polydeoxyribonucleotides / chemistry
  • Polydeoxyribonucleotides / metabolism
  • Protein Binding
  • Proteins / chemistry*
  • Proteins / metabolism
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Taq Polymerase / chemistry
  • Taq Polymerase / metabolism
  • Temperature
  • Thermodynamics*

Substances

  • Aptamers, Nucleotide
  • DNA, Single-Stranded
  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Escherichia coli Proteins
  • Polydeoxyribonucleotides
  • Proteins
  • SSB protein, E coli
  • DNA
  • Taq Polymerase