Crossref journal-article
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
eLife (4374)
Abstract

Electron cryo-microscopy analyzes the structure of proteins and protein complexes in vitrified solution. Proteins tend to adsorb to the air-water interface in unsupported films of aqueous solution, which can result in partial or complete denaturation. We investigated the structure of yeast fatty acid synthase at the air-water interface by electron cryo-tomography and single-particle image processing. Around 90% of complexes adsorbed to the air-water interface are partly denatured. We show that the unfolded regions face the air-water interface. Denaturation by contact with air may happen at any stage of specimen preparation. Denaturation at the air-water interface is completely avoided when the complex is plunge-frozen on a substrate of hydrophilized graphene.

Bibliography

D’Imprima, E., Floris, D., Joppe, M., Sánchez, R., Grininger, M., & Kühlbrandt, W. (2019). Protein denaturation at the air-water interface and how to prevent it. ELife, 8. CLOCKSS.

Authors 6
  1. Edoardo D'Imprima (first)
  2. Davide Floris (additional)
  3. Mirko Joppe (additional)
  4. Ricardo Sánchez (additional)
  5. Martin Grininger (additional)
  6. Werner Kühlbrandt (additional)
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Dates
Type When
Created 6 years, 5 months ago (April 1, 2019, 7 a.m.)
Deposited 1 year, 10 months ago (Oct. 11, 2023, 8:52 p.m.)
Indexed 45 minutes ago (Sept. 2, 2025, 8:01 p.m.)
Issued 6 years, 5 months ago (April 1, 2019)
Published 6 years, 5 months ago (April 1, 2019)
Published Online 6 years, 5 months ago (April 1, 2019)
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@article{D_Imprima_2019, title={Protein denaturation at the air-water interface and how to prevent it}, volume={8}, ISSN={2050-084X}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.42747}, DOI={10.7554/elife.42747}, journal={eLife}, publisher={eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd}, author={D’Imprima, Edoardo and Floris, Davide and Joppe, Mirko and Sánchez, Ricardo and Grininger, Martin and Kühlbrandt, Werner}, year={2019}, month=apr }