Low temperature induced conformation changes of aminoacylase

Control of aggregation, by lowering temperature and protein concentrations, can enhance the extent of successful refolding. The low temperature has been used in protein folding studies, as undesired aggregations often occur at higher temperatures. Therefore, it is very important to study the effects of low temperature on the native enzyme to help understand the factors that affect the structure of the proteins. In this paper, aminoacylase was studied at different temperatures by measuring enzyme activity, fluorescence emission spectra, and ultraviolet difference spectra. The results show that aminoacylase conformation changes as the temperature changes, becoming more compact at low temperatures, and having more secondary structural content. However, the activity is very low at low temperature, and totally diminishes at 4°C. Aminoacylase tends therefore to be more condense, with less residues exposed and low enzyme activities at low temperature. This observation might explain the self-protection of organisms under conditions of extreme temperature.