[Assignment of a component of protein fluorescence spectra to tryptophan residues by their three-dimensional...

Parameters of fluorescence of three single-tryptophan-containing proteins and of two log-normal components of proteinase K (2 tryptophans) were analyzed in relation to the microenvironment characteristics of indolic atoms in crystal structures of the proteins. For this purpose, it was constructed a system of microenvironment description including accessibility of the atoms to the bulk and bound water; the density, polarity and mobility of environment within radii of 5.5 and 7.5 A from each indolic atom; and the existence of eventual partners in hydrogen bonding with excited fluorophore. The analysis showed that, in the cases of the most shorter-wavelength emission bands (those structured at 308 nm for azurin and at 316 nm for L-asparaginase), as well as of the monomer melittin band at 350 nm, the microenvironment characteristics well agreed to those predicted in the model of discrete states of tryptophan in proteins [1,3,7] and can be used for assignment of protein fluorescence spectral components to individual tryptophan residues. However, differences of the microenvironment parameters included in the system are little discernible for the component bands of proteinase K emission at ca. 330 and 340 nm. In order to reliably assign such components of tryptophan fluorescence, it seems to be sufficient to take into account some additional structural characteristics, which could be revealed in a comprehensive analysis of a great number of proteins possessing such spectral components.