Question

Place the steps of Christian Anfinsen\'s ribonuclease A folding experiment in the correct order to produce renaturation of the active protein. Hint: Not all of the steps will be used

Place the steps of Christian Anfinsen\'s ribonuclease A folding experiment in the correct order to produce renaturation of the active protein. Hint: Not all of the steps will be used

Answer 1

Concepts and reason

Anfinsen analysis demonstrated that all the data necessary to determine the 3-dimensional fold was incorporated in the amino acid sequence. It explained that all proteins, under suitable conditions, can be reversibly folded and refolded into their native form under invitro condition and this is referred to as spontaneous folding.

Fundamentals

The native form of a protein has the thermodynamically most stable structure. Protein folding refers to set of sequential steps by which the protein folds into their native structure.

Anfinsen demonstrated that Ribonuclease A (RNase A) which is a single chain protein with 124 amino acids and 4 disulfide bonds can be fully denatured and fully renatured.

The activity of the protein depends on the amino acid sequence and the gene that express it. It is crucial to know the structural organization of the protein by unfolding and refolding it by adding and removing the reducing agent and urea respectively.

Ans:

Therefore, the steps of Ribonuclease A folding experiment in the correct order to produce renaturation of the active protein are: