Crambin in phospholipid vesicles: Circular dichroism analysis of crystal structure relevance

Crambin, a hydrophobic plant seed protein that exhibits sequence homology to membrane-active plant toxins, was incorporated into phospholipid vesicles. Circular dichroism spectroscopy indicates that its structure in vesicles is nearly identical to its structure in 60% ethanol solution, the solvent from which the protein was crystallized. The secondary structure predicted from the circular dichroism data of the ethanol solution closely resembles that determined by x-ray diffraction of the crystals. This agreement suggests that the x-ray structure may form a useful basis for modeling the structure and behavior of lipophilic plant toxins. Finally, because the structure of crambin has been determined in an organic solvent medium, it provides a protein standard for examination of the effect of solvent dipole moment on the circular dichroism spectra of proteins, which may be important for interpretation of data for membrane proteins.