Limited proteolysis: a powerful technique for unravelling features of protein structure

摘要

Limited proteolysis experiments can be successfully used to probe conformational features of proteins. The approach relies on the fact that the sites of limited proteolysis along a polypeptide chain are characterised by enhanced backbone flexibility and, therefore, proteolytic probes can pinpoint the sites of local unfolding in a protein chain. This technique was successfully used to analyse the molecular features of partly folded or molten globule states of proteins, and to isolate protein fragments that can fold autonomously and thus behave as protein domains.