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Protein cluster formation in aqueous solution in the presence of multivalent metal ions-a light scattering study

Soraruf, Daniel ; Roosen-Runge, Felix LU ; Grimaldo, Marco ; Zanini, Fabio ; Schweins, Ralf ; Seydel, Tilo ; Zhang, Fajun ; Roth, Roland ; Oettel, Martin and Schreiber, Frank (2014) In Soft Matter 10(6). p.894-902
Abstract

The formation of protein clusters as precursors for crystallization and phase separation is of fundamental and practical interest in protein science. Using multivalent ions, the strengths of both long-range Coulomb repulsion and short-range attraction can be tuned in protein solutions, representing a well-controlled model system to study static and dynamic properties of clustering during the transition from a charge-stabilized to an aggregate regime. Here, we study compressibility, diffusion, and size of solutes by means of static (SLS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) in solutions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and YCl3. For this and comparable systems, an increasing screening and ultimately inversion of the protein surface... (More)

The formation of protein clusters as precursors for crystallization and phase separation is of fundamental and practical interest in protein science. Using multivalent ions, the strengths of both long-range Coulomb repulsion and short-range attraction can be tuned in protein solutions, representing a well-controlled model system to study static and dynamic properties of clustering during the transition from a charge-stabilized to an aggregate regime. Here, we study compressibility, diffusion, and size of solutes by means of static (SLS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) in solutions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and YCl3. For this and comparable systems, an increasing screening and ultimately inversion of the protein surface charge induce a rich phase behavior including reentrant condensation, liquid-liquid phase separation and crystallization, which puts the cluster formation in the context of precursor formation and nucleation of liquid and crystalline phases. We find that, approaching the turbid aggregate regime with increasing salt concentration cs, the diffusion coefficients decrease and the scattered intensity increases by orders of magnitude, evidencing increasing correlation lengths likely associated with clustering. The combination of static and dynamic observations suggests the formation of BSA clusters with a size on the order of 100 nm. The global thermodynamic state seems to be stable over at least several hours. Surprisingly, results on collective diffusion and inverse compressibility from different protein concentrations can be rescaled into master curves as a function of cs/c*, where c* is the critical salt concentration of the transition to the turbid aggregate regime.

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author
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
in
Soft Matter
volume
10
issue
6
pages
9 pages
publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
external identifiers
  • scopus:84892492195
  • pmid:24835564
ISSN
1744-683X
DOI
10.1039/c3sm52447g
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
f35013b4-0f0b-4cb6-acbd-ac99a8214b8c
date added to LUP
2018-12-17 09:46:23
date last changed
2024-09-17 10:06:35
@article{f35013b4-0f0b-4cb6-acbd-ac99a8214b8c,
  abstract     = {{<p>The formation of protein clusters as precursors for crystallization and phase separation is of fundamental and practical interest in protein science. Using multivalent ions, the strengths of both long-range Coulomb repulsion and short-range attraction can be tuned in protein solutions, representing a well-controlled model system to study static and dynamic properties of clustering during the transition from a charge-stabilized to an aggregate regime. Here, we study compressibility, diffusion, and size of solutes by means of static (SLS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) in solutions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and YCl<sub>3</sub>. For this and comparable systems, an increasing screening and ultimately inversion of the protein surface charge induce a rich phase behavior including reentrant condensation, liquid-liquid phase separation and crystallization, which puts the cluster formation in the context of precursor formation and nucleation of liquid and crystalline phases. We find that, approaching the turbid aggregate regime with increasing salt concentration c<sub>s</sub>, the diffusion coefficients decrease and the scattered intensity increases by orders of magnitude, evidencing increasing correlation lengths likely associated with clustering. The combination of static and dynamic observations suggests the formation of BSA clusters with a size on the order of 100 nm. The global thermodynamic state seems to be stable over at least several hours. Surprisingly, results on collective diffusion and inverse compressibility from different protein concentrations can be rescaled into master curves as a function of c<sub>s</sub>/c*, where c* is the critical salt concentration of the transition to the turbid aggregate regime.</p>}},
  author       = {{Soraruf, Daniel and Roosen-Runge, Felix and Grimaldo, Marco and Zanini, Fabio and Schweins, Ralf and Seydel, Tilo and Zhang, Fajun and Roth, Roland and Oettel, Martin and Schreiber, Frank}},
  issn         = {{1744-683X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{894--902}},
  publisher    = {{Royal Society of Chemistry}},
  series       = {{Soft Matter}},
  title        = {{Protein cluster formation in aqueous solution in the presence of multivalent metal ions-a light scattering study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c3sm52447g}},
  doi          = {{10.1039/c3sm52447g}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}