A competitive labeling method for the determination of the chemical properties of solitary functional groups in proteins.

The properties of the functional groups in a protein can be used as built-in-probes of the structure of the protein. We have developed a general procedure whereby the ionization constant and chemical reactivity of solitary functional groups in proteins may be determined. The method may be applied to the side chain of histidine, tyrosine, lysine, and cysteine, as well as to the amino terminus of the protein. The method, which is an extension of the competitive labeling technique using [3H]- and [14C]1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (N2ph-F) in a double-labeling procedure, is rapid and sensitive. Advantage is taken of the fact that after acid hydrolysis of a dinitrophenylated protein, a derivative is obtained which must be derived from a unique position in the protein. The method has been applied to the solitary histidine residue of lysozyme, alpha-lytic protease, and Streptomyces griseus (S.G.) trypsin, as well as to the amino terminus of the latter protein. The following parameters were obtained for reaction with N2ph-F at 20 degrees C in 0.1 N KCl: the histidine of hen egg-white lysozyme, pKa of 6.4 and second-order velocity constant of 0.188 M-1 min-1; the histidine of alpha-lytic protease, pKa of 6.5 and second-order velocity constant of 0.0235 M-1 min-1; the histidine of S.G. trypsin, pKa of 6.5 and second-order velocity constant of 0.0328 M-1 min-1; the valyl amino terminus of S.G. trypsin, pKa of 8.1 and second-order velocity constant of 0.403 M-1 min-1. In addition, the results obtained provide clues as to the microenvironments of these functional groups, and indicate that the proteins studied undergo pH-dependent conformational changes which affect the microenvironment, and hence the chemical reactivity of these groups.