M. Panda et al., The 4,4 '-dipyridyl disulfide-induced formation of GroEL monomers is cooperative and leads to increased hydrophobic exposure, BIOCHEM, 40(34), 2001, pp. 10402-10410
The molecular chaperone, GroEL, is completely disassembled into monomers by
the addition of 4,4 ' -dipyridyl disulfide. The dissociation leads to mono
mers in a kinetically controlled process. The additions of functional ligan
ds of GroEL such as Mg2+ or adenine nucleotides produced differences in the
observed rates, but at the end of the kinetics, the dissociation was compl
ete. In addition to the information obtained from native gels, the fluoresc
ent probe bis-ANS was utilized to follow the monomer formation. The results
demonstrate that the formation of monomers was associated with the exposur
e of hydrophobic surfaces. This assessment was possible without the use of
added chaotropes, such as urea, to dissociate GroEL. Dissociation kinetics
were also followed by light scattering. The kinetics of dissociation of the
14mer are cooperative with respect to the concentration of 4,4 ' -DPDS. Th
ermodynamic parameters for the kinetic process gave a free energy of activa
tion (DeltaG*) of 19.3 +/- 1.2 kcal mol(-1), which was decomposed to an ent
halpy of activation (DeltaH*) of 19.30 +/- 1.2 kcal mol-1 and an entropy of
activation (DeltaS*) of -8.2 3.9 cal mol(-1) K-1. We conclude that the dis
sociation of GroEL observed in this investigation is an enthalpy-controlled
process.