Thermal-induced unfolding domains in aldolase identified by amide hydrogen exchange and mass spectrometry

Amide hydrogen exchange has been measured in short segments of intact rabbit muscle aldolase at temperatures of 14-50 degrees C by the protein fragmentation/mass spectrometry method (Zhang Z, Smith DL, 1993, Protein Sci 2:522-531). Deuterium levels in some segments did not change over the temperature range of the measurements, whereas deuterium levels in other segments increased rapidly with temperature. These results demonstrate that the equilibrium constant for local unfolding, Kunf, of some segments increases with temperature in the low temperature range (14-30 degrees C) of this study. Aldolase begins to lose activity at temperatures above 40 degrees C. In the 40-50 degrees C temperature range, Kunf is greater than 10(-4) in some regions and less than 10(-6) in other regions. This wide range of regional stability in the temperature range where aldolase begins to denature is interpreted in terms of cooperative unfolding/folding domains. Regions of highest stability were located along the hydrophobic subunit binding surface. It is proposed that hydrogen exchange might be used to identify unfolding domains in multidomain proteins whose thermodynamic properties have been determined by differential scanning calorimetry.