A partially folded intermediate during tubulin unfolding: its detection and spectroscopic characterization

The unfolding reaction of the dimeric protein tubulin, isolated from goat brain, was studied using fluorescence and circular dichroism techniques. The unfolding of the tubulin dimer was found to be a two-step process at pH 7. The first step leads to the formation of an intermediate conformation, stable at around 1-2 M urea, followed by a second step that was due to unfolding of the intermediate state. At pH 3, the urea-induced biphasic unfolding profiles obtained at pH 7 became a one-step process indicating that a stable intermediate was also formed at this pH. The intermediate at pH 3 was more stable toward urea denaturation than that at pH 7. The intermediate state has about 60% secondary structure, partially exposed aromatic residues, and less tertiary structure as compared to the native states. Also, hydrophobic surfaces were more exposed in the intermediate than in the native or unfolded states. These results indicate that the intermediate state observed during tubulin unfolding is not only distinct from both the native and unfolded forms but also possesses some properties characteristic of a molten globule.