Trimming down a protein structure to its bare foldons: spatial organization of the cooperative unit.

Folding of the ribosomal protein S6 is a malleable process controlled by two competing, and partly overlapping, folding nuclei. Together, these nuclei extend over most of the S6 structure, except the edge strand β2, which is consistently missing in the folding transition states; despite being part of the S6 four-stranded sheet, β2 seems not to be part of the cooperative unit of the protein. The question is then whether β2 can be removed from the S6 structure without compromising folding cooperativity or native state integrity.

Changes of protein folding pathways by circular permutation. Overlapping nuclei promote global cooperativity.

The evolved properties of proteins are not limited to structure and stability but also include their propensity to undergo local conformational changes. The latter, dynamic property is related to structural cooperativity and is controlled by the folding-energy landscape. Here we demonstrate that the structural cooperativity of the ribosomal protein S6 is optimized by geometric overlap of two competing folding nuclei: they both include the central beta-strand 1.

Malleability of protein folding pathways: a simple reason for complex behaviour.

Although the structures of native proteins are generally unique, the pathways by which they form are often free to vary. Some proteins fold by a multitude of different pathways, whereas others seem restricted to only one choice. An explanation for this variation in folding behaviour has recently emerged from studies of transition state changes: the number of accessible pathways is linked to the number of nucleation motifs contained within the native topology.

Identification of the minimal protein-folding nucleus through loop-entropy perturbations.

To explore the plasticity and structural constraints of the protein-folding nucleus we have constructed through circular permutation four topological variants of the ribosomal protein S6. In effect, these topological variants represent entropy mutants with maintained spatial contacts. The proteins were characterized at two complementary levels of detail: by phi-value analysis estimating the extent of contact formation in the transition-state ensemble and by Hammond analysis measuring the site-specific growth of the folding nucleus.