Rate of intrachain contact formation in an unfolded protein: temperature and denaturant effects

We have measured the effect of temperature and denaturant concentration on the rate of intrachain diffusion in an unfolded protein. After photodissociating a ligand from the heme iron of unfolded horse cytochrome c, we use transient optical absorption spectroscopy to measure the time scale of the diffusive motions that bring the heme, located at His18, into contact with its native ligand, Met80. Measuring the rate at which this 62 residue intrachain loop forms under both folding and unfolding conditions, we find a significant effect of denaturant on the chain dynamics. The diffusion of the chain accelerates as denaturant concentration decreases, with the contact formation rate approaching a value near ∼6×105 s−1 in the absence of denaturant. This result agrees well with an extrapolation from recent loop formation measurements in short synthetic peptides. The temperature dependence of the rate of contact formation indicates an Arrhenius activation barrier, Ea∼20 kJ/mol, at high denaturant concentrations, comparable to what is expected from solvent viscosity effects alone. Although Ea increases by several kBT as denaturant concentration decreases, the overall rate of diffusion nevertheless increases. These results indicate that inter-residue energetic interactions do not control conformational diffusion in unfolded states, even under folding conditions.