Secondary structural changes of large and small fragments of bovine serum albumin in thermal denaturation and in sodium dodecyl sulfate denaturation.

The helicities in various fragments of bovine serum albumin (BSA) were examined in the thermal denaturation and in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) denaturation. The thermal denaturation was examined in a temperature range between 2 and 65 degrees C. The helicity decreased with a rise of temperature and it recovered to some degree upon cooling temperature. A rather high reversibility was observed in the BSA fragments, which were located in the N-terminal of the parent protein and then contained the first large loop with no disulfide bridge. The high reversibility was available also for the helicity in the first large loop of the fragment, disulfide bridges of which were reduced. The fragments, which were smaller than one domain, became unstable in the SDS denaturation. The helicities of such fragments decreased in lower SDS concentrations compared with those of the intact BSA and the large fragments, which contained one or more domains. A resistance to the SDS denaturation appeared in the helices of every large loop even after the fragmentation. On the other hand, helicities of the fragments decreased to 20-25% upon the reduction of disulfide bridges. However, the helicities of these fragments increased to 35-40% in the SDS denaturation.