Biology 2013, 2(1), 142-150; doi:10.3390/biology2010142
Article

Thermodynamic Stability of Psychrophilic and Mesophilic Pheromones of the Protozoan Ciliate Euplotes

Michael Geralt 1 email, Claudio Alimenti 2 email, Adriana Vallesi 2 email, Pierangelo Luporini 2,* email and Kurt Wüthrich 1,3,* email
1 Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA 2 Department of Environmental and Natural Sciences, University of Camerino, Camerino 62032, Italy 3 Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
* Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 6 December 2012; in revised form: 27 December 2012 / Accepted: 31 December 2012 / Published: 14 January 2013
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polar Microbiology: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives)
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Abstract: Three psychrophilic protein pheromones (En-1, En-2 and En-6) from the polar ciliate, Euplotes nobilii, and six mesophilic pheromones (Er-1, Er-2, Er-10, Er-11, Er-22 and Er-23) from the temperate-water sister species, Euplotes raikovi, were studied in aqueous solution for their thermal unfolding and refolding based on the temperature dependence of their circular dichroism (CD) spectra. The three psychrophilic proteins showed thermal unfolding with mid points in the temperature range 55–70 °C. In contrast, no unfolding was observed for any of the six mesophilic proteins and their regular secondary structures were maintained up to 95 °C. Possible causes of these differences are discussed based on comparisons of the NMR structures of the nine proteins.
Keywords: protein denaturation; protein stability; circular dichroism spectroscopy; psychrophilic proteins; chemical signals

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MDPI and ACS Style

Geralt, M.; Alimenti, C.; Vallesi, A.; Luporini, P.; Wüthrich, K. Thermodynamic Stability of Psychrophilic and Mesophilic Pheromones of the Protozoan Ciliate Euplotes. Biology 2013, 2, 142-150.

AMA Style

Geralt M, Alimenti C, Vallesi A, Luporini P, Wüthrich K. Thermodynamic Stability of Psychrophilic and Mesophilic Pheromones of the Protozoan Ciliate Euplotes. Biology. 2013; 2(1):142-150.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Geralt, Michael; Alimenti, Claudio; Vallesi, Adriana; Luporini, Pierangelo; Wüthrich, Kurt. 2013. "Thermodynamic Stability of Psychrophilic and Mesophilic Pheromones of the Protozoan Ciliate Euplotes." Biology 2, no. 1: 142-150.

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