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Updated: May 20, 2026

Generation of Native, Untagged Huntingtin Exon1 Monomer and Fibrils Using a SUMO Fusion Strategy
Published on: June 27, 2018
Length of polyglutamine tract affects secondary and tertiary structures of huntingtin protein
Shivang N Vachharajani1, Rajeev Kumar Chaudhary, Shivcharan Prasad
1Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Sector 67, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab 160 062, India.
Abstract:
The role of polyglutamine (polyQ) tract on protein stability and disease pathology remains ambiguous. We monitored the unfolding/refolding patterns of huntingtin proteins with varying polyQ lengths. In the presence of urea, minor differences in unfolding and refolding efficiencies were observed. However, in the presence of guanidinium hydrochloride, the protein with a longer polyQ stretch was able to regain its secondary but not tertiary structure on step-wise removal of denaturant. Thus, in case of Huntington's disease, the higher aggregation propensity of the mutant protein is likely to be due to the lower stability of the protein due to elongated polyQ tract.
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