Measurement of circular dichroism dynamics in a nanosecond temperature-jump experiment

Rev Sci Instrum. 2011 May;82(5):054302. doi: 10.1063/1.3592331.

Abstract

The use of a fast temperature jump (T-jump) is a very powerful experiment aiming at studying protein denaturation dynamics. However, probing the secondary structure is a difficult challenge and rarely yields quantitative values. We present the technical implementation of far-UV circular dichroism in a nanosecond T-jump experiment and show that this experiment allows us to follow quantitatively the change in the helical fraction of a poly(glutamic acid) peptide during its thermal denaturation with 12 ns time resolution.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Absorption
  • Circular Dichroism / instrumentation
  • Circular Dichroism / methods*
  • Lasers
  • Polyglutamic Acid / chemistry
  • Protein Denaturation
  • Spectrophotometry, Infrared
  • Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
  • Temperature*
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Polyglutamic Acid