Interaction between proteins and detergents which contain a hydrocarbon chain longer than 16 carbon atoms. II. Difference spectra of various proteins in cetyldimethyl-benzylammonium chloride.

The detergents which contain a hydrocarbon side chain longer than 16 cabron atoms were used as a perturbant for the study of protein structure. ta low concentration of cetyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride (CDBA) caused difference spectra for Ac-Trp-OEt and AC-Tyr-OEt. The delta e values at their difference maxima became constant above 30 mM of cetyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride, 1430 at 294 nm for Ac-Trp-OEt and 450 at 288 nm for Ac-Tyr-OEt. These delta e values are higher than any other delta e values resulting from solvent effects by such a remarkably low concentration of organic reagents described in the literature so far. The absence of denaturation blue shift in the difference spectra and the fact that the optical rotatory dispersion of the proteins examined in the present study was not changed significantly by cetyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride indicate that the secondary and tertiary structures of the proteins were not destroyed by cetyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride. These characteristics, together with small overlapping of their difference spectra at 288 and 294 nm were advantageous in the determination of tryptophan and tyrosine residues exposed in glucagon, insulin and alcohol dehydrogenase from yeast. No tyrosine residues in ribonuclease A was accessible to cetyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride. Unusual difference spectrum with a peak at 298 nm was observed for lysozyme which is known to contain tryptophan residues in special environments. Ovalbumin gave a novel unusual difference spectrum with a peak at 290 nm and a shoulder at 298 nm, showing the existence of unusual tryptophan and probably tyrosine residues in the molecule.