Quenching of the fluorescence of various fluorophores by molecular oxygen has been studied in aqueous and nonaqueous solutions equilibrated with oxygen pressures up to 100 atm. Temperature dependence of quenching, agreement with the Stern–Volmer equation, and fluorescence lifetime measurements indicate that essentially all the observed quenching is dynamic and close to the diffusion-controlled limits. Studies of charged polyamino acids containing tryptophan show that oxygen quenching, in contrast to I−, is completely insensitive to charge effects. Ethidium bromide, when intercalated into double helical DNA, is quenched with 1/30th of the efficiency of the free dye in solution. Three dyes bound to bovine serum albumin were also found to be relatively protected from the free diffusion of oxygen. Quenching of intrinsic or bound fluorophores by molecular oxygen is therefore an appropriate method to determine the accessibility to oxygen of regions of the macromolecule surrounding the fluorophore and indirectly the structural fluctuations in the macromolecule that permit its diffusion to the fluorophore.

Quenching of fluorescence by oxygen. A probe for structural fluctuations in macromolecules.

Removal of Fatty Acids from Serum Albumin by Charcoal Treatment

The interaction of a naphthalene dye with apomyoglobin and apohemoglobin: A fluorescent probe of non-polar binding sites

Noncovalent, extrinsic fluorescent dyes are applied in various fields of protein analysis, e.g. to characterize folding intermediates, measure surface hydrophobicity, and detect aggregation or fibrillation. The main underlying mechanisms, which explain the fluorescence properties of many extrinsic dyes, are solvent relaxation processes and (twisted) intramolecular charge transfer reactions, which are affected by the environment and by interactions of the dyes with proteins. In recent time, the use of extrinsic fluorescent dyes such as ANS, Bis-ANS, Nile Red, Thioflavin T and others has increased, because of their versatility, sensitivity and suitability for high-throughput screening. The intention of this review is to give an overview of available extrinsic dyes, explain their spectral properties, and show illustrative examples of their various applications in protein characterization.

/pdf/extrinsic-fluorescent-dyes-as-tools-for-protein-nmhkb08wui.pdf

Lorna B. Young

Papers

Fragmentation of bovine serum albumin by pepsin. i. the origin of the acid expansion of the albumin molecule.

Fragmentation of bovine serum albumin by pepsin. ii. isolation, amino acid composition, and physical properties of the fragments.