Trifluoroethanol-induced conformational transition of the C-terminal sterile alpha motif (SAM) of human p73.

The alpha splice variant of p73 (p73α), a homologue of the tumour suppressor p53, has at its C terminus a sterile alpha motif (SAM); this domain, SAMp73, is involved in lipid binding and it is thought to mediate in protein-protein interactions. As SAMp73 is a 68-residue-long helical bundle, it could be a good model to study the (2,2,2-trifluoroethanol) TFE-induced conformational transitions of α-helical proteins. Furthermore, as SAMp73 binds to lipids through a well-known polypeptide patch, we can test whether TFE is a good mimic of lipids and membranes. To address those questions, we used several biophysical probes, namely, fluorescence, circular dichroism, 1D, 2D and 3D-NMR spectroscopies, and dynamic light scattering. The TFE-induced conformational transition of SAMp73 was complex, involving several species as detected by the biophysical probes. The last TFE-induced transition occurred at a concentration of TFE of ∼20% (v/v), where the protein lost its compactness. None of those TFE-induced species accumulated during the two-state folding of SAMp73 in aqueous solution. The final state at 40% TFE was highly helical, but its structure was not rigid. For SAMp73, TFE did not properly mimic a membrane-like environment, since at very low TFE concentrations, other residues, together with those known to interact with lipids, were also affected by the co-solvent. Comparison with studies on isolated peptides, comprising the helical regions of SAMp73, suggests that peptides were good models of the intact protein in TFE.