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Biophysical Characterization Of Tryptophan Locales, Mg²+ Binding And Protein Folding In Gα Subunits, Matthew Najor

Dissertations

The objective of this study is to understand the structure of guanine nucleotide - binding (G) proteins using a variety of spectroscopic tools. G proteins are membrane-bound proteins consisting of α, β, and γ subunits required for the transduction of extracellular signals to various intracellular effectors. Activation of G protein coupled receptors by neurotransmitters or hormones result in a conformational change of a G protein that is triggered by the exchange of guanosine 5'- diphosphate (GDP) bound to the  subunit for guanosine 5'- triphosphate (GTP) and concomitant dissociation of the  dimer.

Wild type (WT) Giα1 has three tryptophan …