THE DSC DATA-ANALYSIS FOR SMALL, SINGLE-DOMAIN PROTEINS - APPLICATIONTO THE SH3 DOMAIN

In some cases, small globular domains can maintain their native three- dimensional structure when separated from the rest of the protein. But due to the small size of such domains and low heat effect accompanyin g their cooperative structure unfolding, this transition occurs in a v ery broad temperature range. It is shown that for such broad processes an accurate evaluation of the thermodynamic parameters from the DSC d ata can be done only by a global curve-fitting analysis applied to the multiple DSC curves obtained under various solvent conditions. (C) 19 98 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.