The role of subunits in tubulin. I. Renaturation of tubulin after treatment with urea and sodium dodecyl sulfate.

Bovine brain tubulin treated with urea and SDS partially recovered colchicine binding capacity after removal of SDS in the presence of urea followed by stepwise dialysis against urea solutions of lower concentrations. Tubulin subjected to the above procedure showed the same circular dichroism spectrum between 215 and 260 nm as the native one but showed a slightly different fluorescence spectrum when excited at 290 nm.