We present evidence for a mechanism by which regulatory proteins may gain access to their target DNA sequences in chromatin. In this model, nucleosomes are dynamic structures, transiently exposing stretches of their DNA. Regulatory proteins gain access to DNA target sites in the exposed state, and bind with an apparent dissociation constant equal to their dissociation constant for naked DNA div...

The emission from the acidic form of the green fluorescence protein (GFP) changes with increasing time and temperature from t-1/2 to t-3/2 asymptotics. It is shown that a model of proton diffusion along a one-dimensional hydrogen-bond network within the protein, with a switch (Thr203) allowing for proton escape, explains the data quantitatively. From a comparison of the model with experiment, w...

A binding study of nickel ions by a new recombinant human Growth Hormone (hGH), produced as an injected drug, has been done at 27˚C in NaCl solution (50 mM) using an isothermal titration calorimetry. There is a set of three identical and non-interacting binding sites for nickel ions. The intrinsic dissociation equilibrium constant and the molar enthalpy of binding are 40 μM and -16...

The biopharmaceutical profile of a compound depends directly on the dissociation constants of its acidic and basic groups, commonly expressed as the negative decadic logarithm pKa of the acid dissociation constant (Ka). The acid dissociation constant (also protonation or ionization constant) Ka is an equilibrium constant defined as the ratio of the protonated and the deprotonated form of a comp...

Anomalous sedimentation patterns arise when free ribosomes from sea urchin eggs are centrifuged at high speeds. Pressure-induced dissociation of the ribosomes during sedimentation can explain the peculiar behavior; the assumption of such dissociation also yields estimates of the equilibrium constant (as a function of KCl concentration) and the change in molecular volume (500 +/- 100 ml/mol) in ...

From distribution measurements using dilute solutions both the extraction equilibrium constant and the dissociation constant for the ion pair are obtained. The free energy of transfer of the two ions are also obtained from the same experiment. From these constants and distribution measurements in solutions, more concentrated than those above, the degree of dissociation in the organic layer is o...

The time course of the soybean lipoxygenase-catalyzed oxygenation of linoleic acid has been analyzed using a kinetic scheme based on two binding sites, compulsory product activation and competitive inhibition by substrate and by product. The dissociation constant (Kp) of the product from the free enzyme is much smaller than 10(-5) M, the dissociation constant of the substrate from the enzyme-su...