Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Role Of Metallothionein In Zinc Homeostasis, Kelly L. Summers

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The structure of the unique metal-binding protein, metallothionein (MT), consists of two metal-thiolate-clustered binding domains; the β-domain binds up to three divalent metals and the α-domain binds four. The mechanisms through which the metals are bound and arranged into domains, as well as the function of MT in metal ion homeostasis, remains largely unknown. By utilizing electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI MS) to identify each species, and by comparing the data with simulations, MT 1a was found to bind Zn²⁺ non-cooperatively. Through a competition experiment between MT and its individual domain peptides, MT was proposed to bind Zn^{2+ …}

Protein Structure And Interactions Studied By Electrospray Mass Spectrometry, Jiangjiang Liu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Since the emergence of electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry (MS) as a tool for protein structural studies, this area has experienced tremendous growth. ESI-MS is highly sensitive, and it allows the analysis of biological systems ranging in size from a few atoms to large multi-protein complexes. This work aims to solve questions in protein structural biology by using ESI-MS in conjunction with other techniques.

We initially apply ESI-MS for studying the monomeric protein cytochrome c (Chapter 2). The physical reasons underlying the irreversible thermal denaturation of this protein remain controversial. By utilizing deconvoluted charge state distributions, oxidative modifications were found …