Identification of Structural Features of Condensed Tannins That Affect Protein Aggregation

PLoS One. 2017 Jan 26;12(1):e0170768. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170768. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

A diverse panel of condensed tannins was used to resolve the confounding effects of size and subunit composition seen previously in tannin-protein interactions. Turbidimetry revealed that size in terms of mean degree of polymerisation (mDP) or average molecular weight (amw) was the most important tannin parameter. The smallest tannin with the relatively largest effect on protein aggregation had an mDP of ~7. The average size was significantly correlated with aggregation of bovine serum albumin, BSA (mDP: r = -0.916; amw: r = -0.925; p<0.01; df = 27), and gelatin (mDP: r = -0.961; amw: r = -0.981; p<0.01; df = 12). The procyanidin/prodelphinidin and cis-/trans-flavan-3-ol ratios gave no significant correlations. Tryptophan fluorescence quenching indicated that procyanidins and cis-flavan-3-ol units contributed most to the tannin interactions on the BSA surface and in the hydrophobic binding pocket (r = 0.677; p<0.05; df = 9 and r = 0.887; p<0.01; df = 9, respectively). Circular dichroism revealed that higher proportions of prodelphinidins decreased the apparent α-helix content (r = -0.941; p<0.01; df = 5) and increased the apparent β-sheet content (r = 0.916; p<0.05; df = 5) of BSA.

MeSH terms

  • Anthocyanins / chemistry*
  • Biflavonoids / chemistry*
  • Catechin / chemistry*
  • Flavonoids / chemistry*
  • Gelatin / chemistry*
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Kinetics
  • Molecular Structure
  • Plant Extracts / chemistry
  • Plants, Medicinal / chemistry
  • Proanthocyanidins / chemistry*
  • Protein Aggregates
  • Protein Binding
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine / chemistry*
  • Solutions
  • Tannins / chemistry*
  • Tryptophan / chemistry

Substances

  • Anthocyanins
  • Biflavonoids
  • Flavonoids
  • Plant Extracts
  • Proanthocyanidins
  • Protein Aggregates
  • Solutions
  • Tannins
  • Serum Albumin, Bovine
  • flavan-3-ol
  • procyanidin
  • Tryptophan
  • Catechin
  • Gelatin

Grants and funding

HMR, AR and IMH acknowledge financial support from the European Union (Marie Curie Initial Training Network; PITN GA 2011 289377, “LegumePlus”). The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors HMR and AR, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.