SPIN DIFFUSION AS A METHOD TO STUDY PROTEIN DYNAMICS - THERMAL-DENATURATION OF RIBONUCLEASE-A

A quantitative method based on the proton nuclear Overhauser effects under conditions of maximum spin diffusion has been proposed to study protein dynamics. By this method the thermal denaturation of ribonuclease A was investigated and it was shown that just after completing denaturation the protein molecule contained up to 25% of the rest structure, whose amount slowly decreased with increasing temperature. This method may be applied to investigate protein dynamics under the action of various physical and chemical factors.