Effect of proline on lactate dehydrogenase activity: testing the generality and scope of the compatibility paradigm.

The k(cat) and K(m) kinetic parameters of the labile enzyme rabbit muscle lactic dehydrogenase were determined as a function of the concentration of proline, a solute (osmolyte) accumulated in the cells of many organisms to protect them against environmental stresses. Proline is believed to protect against the stress(es) without altering the functional activity of cellular macromolecules, a property defining it as a "compatible osmolyte." In the range of 0-2 M proline, K(cat) and K(m) values for both substrates are essentially unchanged, but between 2 M and 4 M proline, k(cat) decreases by a factor of 3 to 4, whereas K(m) values are only modestly changed, if at all. These results are consistent with the proposal that compatible osmolytes do not affect functional activity, that the property of compatibility expressed by such osmolytes is generic without regard to the evolutionary history of the protein, and that the organic osmolyte concentration range over which compatibility is exhibited is extensive. In short, the results are in full accord with the principal hypothesis of "compatible osmolytes" in detail and scope.     

Effects of cell volume regulating osmolytes on glycerol 3-phosphate binding to triosephosphate isomerase

During cell volume regulation, intracellular concentration changes occur in both inorganic and organic osmolytes in order to balance the extracellular osmotic stress and maintain cell volume homeostasis. Generally, salt and urea increase the Km's of enzymes and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) counteracts these effects by decreasing Km's. The hypothesis to account for these effects is that urea and salt shift the native state ensemble of the enzyme toward conformers that are substrate-binding incompetent (BI), while TMAO shifts the ensemble toward binding competent (BC) species. Km's are often complex assemblies of rate constants involving several elementary steps in catalysis, so to better understand osmolyte effects we have focused on a single elementary event, substrate binding. We test the conformational shift hypothesis by evaluating the effects of salt, urea, and TMAO on the mechanism of binding glycerol 3-phosphate, a substrate analogue, to yeast triosephosphate isomerase. Temperature-jump kinetic measurements promote a mechanism consistent with osmolyte-induced shifts in the [BI]/[BC] ratio of enzyme conformers. Importantly, salt significantly affects the binding constant through its effect on the activity coefficients of substrate, enzyme, and enzyme-substrate complex, and it is likely that TMAO and urea affect activity coefficients as well. Results indicate that the conformational shift hypothesis alone does not account for the effects of osmolytes on Km's.     

Effect of osmolytes on protein dynamics in the lactate dehydrogenase-catalyzed reaction

Laser-induced temperature jump relaxation spectroscopy was used to probe the effect of osmolytes on the microscopic rate constants of the lactate dehydrogenase-catalyzed reaction. NADH fluorescence and absorption relaxation kinetics were measured for the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) reaction system in the presence of varying amounts of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a protein-stabilizing osmolyte, or urea, a protein-destabilizing osmolyte. Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) at a concentration of 1 M strongly increases the rate of hydride transfer, nearly nullifies its activation energy, and also slightly increases the enthalpy of hydride transfer. In 1 M urea, the hydride transfer enthalpy is almost nullified, but the activation energy of the step is not affected significantly. TMAO increases the preference of the closed conformation of the active site loop in the LDH·NAD(+)·lactate complex; urea decreases it. The loop opening rate in the LDH·NADH·pyruvate complex changes its temperature dependence to inverse Arrhenius with TMAO. In this complex, urea accelerates the loop motion, without changing the loop opening enthalpy. A strong, non-Arrhenius decrease in the pyruvate binding rate in the presence of TMAO offers a decrease in the fraction of the open loop, pyruvate binding competent form at higher temperatures. The pyruvate off rate is not affected by urea but decreases with TMAO. Thus, the osmolytes strongly affect the rates and thermodynamics of specific events along the LDH-catalyzed reaction: binding of substrates, loop closure, and the chemical event. Qualitatively, these results can be understood as an osmolyte-induced change in the energy landscape of the protein complexes, shifting the conformational nature of functional substates within the protein ensemble.     

Unusual organic osmolytes in deep-sea animals: adaptations to hydrostatic pressure and other perturbants

Shallow-living marine invertebrates use free amino acids as cellular osmolytes, while most teleosts use almost no organic osmolytes. Recently we found unusual osmolyte compositions in deep-sea animals. Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) increases with depth in muscles of some teleosts, skates, and crustaceans (up to 300 mmol/kg at 2900 m). Other deep-sea animals had high levels of (1). scyllo-inositol in echinoderms, gastropods, and polychaetes, (2). that polyol plus beta-alanine and betaine in octopods, (3). hypotaurine, N-methyltaurine, and unidentified methylamines in vestimentiferans from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, and (4). a depth-correlated serine-phosphate osmolyte in vesicomyid clams from trench seeps. We hypothesize that some of these solutes counteract effects of hydrostatic pressure. With lactate dehydrogenase, actin, and pyruvate kinase, 250 mM TMAO (but not glycine) protected both ligand binding and protein stability against pressure. To test TMAO in living cells, we grew yeast under pressure. After 1 h at 71 MPa, 3.5 h at 71 MPa, and 17 h at 30 MPa, 150 mM TMAO generally doubled the number of cells that formed colonies. Sulfur-based osmolytes which are not correlated with depth, such as hypotaurine and thiotaurine, are probably involved in sulfide metabolism and detoxification. Thus deep-sea osmolytes may have at least two other roles beyond acting as simple compatible osmotica.     

Parvalbumin characterization from the euryhaline stingray Dasyatis sabina

The Atlantic stingray, Dasyatis sabina found along the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern Atlantic coasts, is a euryhaline species of elasmobranch. This species is able to osmotically compensate for changing environmental salinity by altering plasma and intracellular solutes, including urea and counteracting methylamines (betaine and TMAO). Parvalbumin (PV) is an intracellular protein that facilitates muscle relaxation by sequestering calcium. Determining the effects that in situ concentrations of urea (146 mM), betaine (62 mM), and TMAO (11 mM) have on PV function in marine and freshwater adapted populations of D. sabina could provide insight into intracellular correlates of euryhaline tolerance for this species. PV from marine and freshwater populations of D. sabina was identified and purified by SDS-PAGE, western blot analysis, and full amino acid sequence analysis. Both populations exhibited two PV isoforms, PV I (approximately 12.18 kDa mw) and PV II (11.96 kDa mw). PV dissociation constants (K(D)) were determined in the presence and absence of physiological concentrations of urea, betaine, and TMAO by fluorescence spectroscopy using the fluorescent Ca(2+) indicator fluo-3 which competes with PV for Ca(2+). Functional studies revealed PV I showed no significant changes in calcium binding from in situ muscle conditions, except in the presence of betaine. In contrast, PV II's ability to bind calcium was increased relative to physiological conditions in the presence of each osmolyte independently. Thus, it appears that organic osmolytes have isoform specific effects on PV function.     

A comparison of the counteracting effects of glycine betaine and TMAO on the activity of RNase A in aqueous urea solution

Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) and glycine betaine are counteracting osmolytes found in cellular systems under osmotic stress, often in association with high urea concentrations. TMAO is a characteristic component of cartilaginous fish and marine molluscs, while glycine betaine is more widely distributed, occurring in plants, bacteria and the mammalian kidney. As part of a project to explain and understand the action of these methylamines, the RNase A-catalysed degradation of polyuridylic acid in the presence of urea and various osmolytes (0-1.0 M) was studied using (31)P Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. The decrease in reaction rate induced by urea could be fully recovered with 1 molar equivalent of trimethylamine-N-oxide or 1.4 molar equivalents of glycine betaine. These results indicate that the modification of RNase A activity induced by urea is not associated with gross irreversible structural changes and that both glycine betaine and trimethylamine-N-oxide have kinetically detectable counteracting effects.     

Vapor pressure osmometry studies of osmolyte-protein interactions: implications for the action of osmoprotectants in vivo and for the interpretation of "osmotic stress" experiments in vitro

To interpret or to predict the responses of biopolymer processes in vivo and in vitro to changes in solute concentration and to coupled changes in water activity (osmotic stress), a quantitative understanding of the thermodynamic consequences of interactions of solutes and water with biopolymer surfaces is required. To this end, we report isoosmolal preferential interaction coefficients (Gamma(mu1) determined by vapor pressure osmometry (VPO) over a wide range of concentrations for interactions between native bovine serum albumin (BSA) and six small solutes. These include Escherichia coli cytoplasmic osmolytes [potassium glutamate (K(+)Glu(-)), trehalose], E. coli osmoprotectants (proline, glycine betaine), and also glycerol and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). For all six solutes, Gamma(mu1) and the corresponding dialysis preferential interaction coefficient Gamma(mu1),(mu3) (both calculated from the VPO data) are negative; Gamma(mu1), (mu3) is proportional to bulk solute molality (m(bulk)3) at least up to 1 m (molal). Negative values of Gamma(mu1),(mu3) indicate preferential exclusion of these solutes from a BSA solution at dialysis equilibrium and correspond to local concentrations of these solutes in the vicinity of BSA which are lower than their bulk concentrations. Of the solutes investigated, betaine is the most excluded (Gamma(mu1),(mu3)/m(bulk)3 = -49 +/- 1 m(-1)); glycerol is the least excluded (Gamma(mu1),(mu3)/m(bulk)3 = -10 +/- 1 m(-1)). Between these extremes, the magnitude of Gamma(mu1),(mu3)/m(bulk)3 decreases in the order glycine betaine > proline >TMAO > trehalose approximately K(+)Glu(-) > glycerol. The order of exclusion of E. coli osmolytes from BSA surface correlates with their effectiveness as osmoprotectants, which increase the growth rate of E. coli at high external osmolality. For the most excluded solute (betaine), Gamma(mu1),(mu3) provides a minimum estimate of the hydration of native BSA of approximately 2.8 x 10(3) H(2)O/BSA, which corresponds to slightly less than a monolayer (estimated to be approximately 3.2 x 10(3) H(2)O). Consequently, of the solutes investigated here, only betaine might be suitable for use in osmotic stress experiments in vitro as a direct probe to quantify changes in hydration of protein surface in biopolymer processes. More generally, however, our results and analysis lead to the proposal that any of these solutes can be used to quantify changes in water-accessible surface area (ASA) in biopolymer processes once preferential interactions of the solute with biopolymer surface are properly taken into account.     

A natural osmolyte trimethylamine N-oxide promotes assembly and bundling of the bacterial cell division protein, FtsZ and counteracts the denaturing effects of urea

Assembly of FtsZ was completely inhibited by low concentrations of urea and its unfolding occurred in two steps in the presence of urea, with the formation of an intermediate [Santra MK & Panda D (2003) J Biol Chem278, 21336-21343]. In this study, using the fluorescence of 1-anilininonaphthalene-8-sulfonic acid and far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopy, we found that a natural osmolyte, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), counteracted the denaturing effects of urea and guanidium chloride on FtsZ. TMAO also protected assembly and bundling of FtsZ protofilaments from the denaturing effects of urea and guanidium chloride. Furthermore, the standard free energy changes for unfolding of FtsZ were estimated to be 22.5 and 28.4 kJ.mol(-1) in the absence and presence of 0.6 M TMAO, respectively. The data are consistent with the view that osmolytes counteract denaturant-induced unfolding of proteins by destabilizing the unfolded states. Interestingly, TMAO was also found to affect the assembly properties of native FtsZ. TMAO increased the light-scattering signal of the FtsZ assembly, increased sedimentable polymer mass, enhanced bundling of FtsZ protofilaments and reduced the GTPase activity of FtsZ. Similar to TMAO, monosodium glutamate, a physiological osmolyte in bacteria, which induces assembly and bundling of FtsZ filaments in vitro[Beuria TK, Krishnakumar SS, Sahar S, Singh N, Gupta K, Meshram M & Panda D (2003) J Biol Chem278, 3735-3741], was also found to counteract the deleterious effects of urea on FtsZ. The results together suggested that physiological osmolytes may regulate assembly and bundling of FtsZ in bacteria and that they may protect the functionality of FtsZ under environmental stress conditions.     

Living with urea stress

Intracellular organic osmolytes are present in certain organisms adapted to harsh environments. These osmolytes protect intracellular macromolecules against denaturing environmental stress. In contrast to the usually benign effects of most organic osmolytes, the waste product urea is a well-known perturbant of macromolecules. Although urea is a perturbing solute which inhibits enzyme activity and stability, it is employed by some species as a major osmolyte. The answer to this paradox was believed to be the discovery of protective osmolytes (methylamines). We review the current state of knowledge on the various ways of counteracting the harmful effects of urea in nature and the mechanisms for this. This review ends with the mechanistic idea that cellular salt (KCl/NaCl) plays a crucial role in counteracting the effects of urea, either by inducing required chaperones or methylamines, or by thermodynamic interactions with urea-destabilised proteins. We also propose future opportunities and challenges in the field.     

Analysis of Strains Lacking Known Osmolyte Accumulation Mechanisms Reveals Contributions of Osmolytes and Transporters to Protection against Abiotic Stress

Osmolyte accumulation and release can protect cells from abiotic stresses. In Escherichia coli, known mechanisms mediate osmotic stress-induced accumulation of K⁺ glutamate, trehalose, or zwitterions like glycine betaine. Previous observations suggested that additional osmolyte accumulation mechanisms (OAMs) exist and their impacts may be abiotic stress specific. Derivatives of the uropathogenic strain CFT073 and the laboratory strain MG1655 lacking known OAMs were created. CFT073 grew without osmoprotectants in minimal medium with up to 0.9 M NaCl. CFT073 and its OAM-deficient derivative grew equally well in high- and low-osmolality urine pools. Urine-grown bacteria did not accumulate large amounts of known or novel osmolytes. Thus, CFT073 showed unusual osmotolerance and did not require osmolyte accumulation to grow in urine. Yeast extract and brain heart infusion stimulated growth of the OAM-deficient MG1655 derivative at high salinity. Neither known nor putative osmoprotectants did so. Glutamate and glutamine accumulated after growth with either organic mixture, and no novel osmolytes were detected. MG1655 derivatives retaining individual OAMs were created. Their abilities to mediate osmoprotection were compared at 15°C, 37°C without or with urea, and 42°C. Stress protection was not OAM specific, and variations in osmoprotectant effectiveness were similar under all conditions. Glycine betaine and dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) were the most effective. Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) was a weak osmoprotectant and a particularly effective urea protectant. The effectiveness of glycine betaine, TMAO, and proline as osmoprotectants correlated with their preferential exclusion from protein surfaces, not with their propensity to prevent protein denaturation. Thus, their effectiveness as stress protectants correlated with their ability to rehydrate the cytoplasm.     

Time-dependent effects of trimethylamine-N-oxide/urea on lactate dehydrogenase activity: an unexplored dimension of the adaptation paradigm.

Given that enzymes in urea-rich cells are believed to be just as sensitive to urea effects as enzymes in non-urea-rich cells, it is argued that time-dependent inactivation of enzymes by urea could become a factor of overriding importance in the biology of urea-rich cells. Time-independent parameters (e.g. Tm, k(cat), and Km) involving protein stability and enzyme function have generally been the focus of inquiries into the efficacy of naturally occurring osmolytes like trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), to offset the deleterious effects of urea on the intracellular proteins in the urea-rich cells of elasmobranchs. However, using urea concentrations found in urea-rich cells of elasmobranches, we have found time-dependent effects on lactate dehydrogenase activity which indicate that TMAO plays the important biological role of slowing urea-induced dissociation of multimeric intracellular proteins. TMAO greatly diminishes the rate of lactate dehydrogenase dissociation and affords significant protection of the enzyme against urea-induced time-dependent inactivation. The effects of TMAO on enzyme inactivation by urea adds a temporal dimension that is an important part of the biology of the adaptation paradigm.     

Influence of Osmolytes on Inactivation and Aggregation of Muscle Glycogen Phosphorylase <Emphasis Type="Italic">b</Emphasis> by Guanidine Hydrochloride. Stimulation of Protein Aggregation under Crowding Conditions

The effects of the osmolytes trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), betaine, proline, and glycine on the kinetics of inactivation and aggregation of rabbit skeletal muscle glycogen phosphorylase b by guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl) have been studied. It is shown that the osmolytes TMAO and betaine exhibit the highest protective efficacy against phosphorylase b inactivation. A test system for studying the effects of macromolecular crowding induced by osmolytes on aggregation of proteins is proposed. TMAO and glycine increase the rate of phosphorylase b aggregation induced by GuHCl.     

TMAO and other organic osmolytes in the muscles of amphipods (Crustacea) from shallow and deep water of Lake Baikal

Concentrations of trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) and other 'compatible' osmolytes were analyzed in the muscle tissue of Lake Baikal amphipods (Crustacea) in relation to water depth of the freshwater Lake Baikal. Using HPLC and mass spectrometry, glycerophosphoryl choline (GPC), betaine, S-methyl-cysteine, sarcosine, and taurine were detected for the first time in freshwater amphipods. These osmolytes were frequently found in the five species studied but mixtures were too complex to be quantified. The pattern of these osmolytes did not change with respect to water depth. The TMAO concentration, however, was significantly higher in the muscle tissue of amphipods living in deep water than of those living in shallow water, which supports the hypothesis that TMAO acts as a protective osmolyte at increased hydrostatic pressure. We propose that eurybathic amphipods, exposed to raised hydrostatic pressure in the extremely deep freshwater Lake Baikal, have elevated TMAO levels to counteract the adverse effect of high pressure on protein structure. The elevated intracellular osmotic pressure is balanced by upregulating the extracellular hemolymph NaCl concentration.     

Osmolyte-induced folding enhances tryptic enzyme activity

Osmolytes form a class of naturally occurring small compounds known to protect proteins in their native folded and functional states. Among the osmolytes, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) has received special interest lately because it has shown an extraordinary capability to support folding of denatured to native-like species, which show significant functional activity. Most enzymes and/or proteins are commonly stored in glycerol to maintain their activity/function. In the present study, we tested whether TMAO can be a better solute than glycerol for two commonly used proteases, trypsin and chymotrypsin. Our enzyme kinetic data suggest that the enzyme activity of trypsin is significantly enhanced in TMAO compared to glycerol, whereas chymotrypsin activity is not significantly changed in either case. These results are in accordance with the osmolyte effects on the folding of these enzymes, as judged by data from fluorescence emission spectroscopy. These results suggest that TMAO may be a better solute than glycerol to maintain optimal tryptic enzyme activity.     

Trimethylamine oxide, betaine and other osmolytes in deep-sea animals: depth trends and effects on enzymes under hydrostatic pressure.

Most shallow teleosts have low organic osmolyte contents, e.g. 70 mmol/kg or less of trimethylamine oxide (TMAO). Our previous work showed that TMAO contents increase with depth in muscles of several Pacific families of teleost fishes, to about 180 mmol/kg wet wt at 2.9 km depth in grenadiers. We now report that abyssal grenadiers (Coryphaenoides armatus, Macrouridae) from the Atlantic at 4.8 km depth contain 261 mmol/kg wet wt in muscle tissue. This precisely fits a linear trend extrapolated from the earlier data. We also found that anemones show a trend of increasing contents of methylamines (TMAO, betaine) and scyllo-inositol with increasing depth. Previously we found that TMAO counteracts the inhibitory effects of hydrostatic pressure on a variety of proteins. We now report that TMAO and, to a lesser extent, betaine, are generally better stabilizers than other common osmolytes (myo-inositol, taurine and glycine), in terms of counteracting the effects of pressure on NADH Km of grenadier lactate dehydrogenase and ADP Km of anemone and rabbit pyruvate kinase.     

Effect of osmolytes on the interaction of flavin adenine dinucleotide with muscle glycogen phosphorylase b

The effect of three osmolytes, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), betaine and proline, on the interaction of muscle glycogen phosphorylase b with allosteric inhibitor FAD has been examined. In the absence of osmolyte, the interaction is described by a single intrinsic dissociation constant (17.8 microM) for two equivalent and independent binding sites on the dimeric enzyme. However, the addition of osmolytes gives rise to sigmoidal dependencies of fractional enzyme-site saturation upon free inhibitor concentration. The source of this cooperativity has been shown by difference sedimentation velocity to be an osmolyte-mediated isomerization of phosphorylase b to a smaller dimeric state with decreased affinity for FAD. These results thus have substantiated a previous inference that the tendency for osmolyte-enhanced self-association of dimeric glycogen phosphorylase b in the presence of AMP was being countered by the corresponding effect of molecular crowding on an isomerization of dimer to a smaller, nonassociating state.     

Measuring the interaction of urea and protein-stabilizing osmolytes with the nonpolar surface of hydroxypropylcellulose

The interaction of urea and several naturally occurring protein-stabilizing osmolytes, glycerol, sorbitol, glycine betaine, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), and proline, with condensed arrays of a hydrophobically modified polysaccharide, hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC), has been inferred from the effect of these solutes on the forces acting between HPC polymers. Urea interacts only very weakly. The protein-stabilizing osmolytes are strongly excluded. The observed energies indicate that the exclusion of the protein-stabilizing osmolytes from protein hydrophobic side chains would add significantly to protein stability. The temperature dependence of exclusion indicates a significant contribution of enthalpy to the interaction energy in contrast to expectations from "molecular crowding" theories based on steric repulsion. The dependence of exclusion on the distance between HPC polymers rather indicates that perturbations of water structuring or hydration forces underlie exclusion.     

Solute compatibility with enzyme function and structure: rationales for the selection of osmotic agents and end-products of anaerobic metabolism in marine invertebrates.

The major nitrogenous osmolytes present in the cells of marine invertebrates, notably the free amino acids glycine, alanine and proline, and trimethylamine oxide and betaine, are highly compatible with proper enzyme function and structure. These nitrogenous osmolytes display either non-perturbing or, in some cases, favorable effects on enzyme-substrate and enzyme-cofactor complex formation, catalytic velocity and protein structural stability. In contrast, inorganic salts (KCl and NaCl) and certain of the free amino acids which play only a minor osmotic role, e.g., arginine and lysine, have strongly perturbing effects on one or more of these enzymic parameters. The compatible nitrogenous solutes therefore are suitable for use at high (several tenths molar) concentrations and at widely varying concentrations in osmo-conforming species. Certain nitrogenous solutes, especially trimethylamine oxide, betaine and glutamate, offset some of the perturbing effects of inorganic ions on enzyme function. The selective accumulation of osmolytes thus involves not only the concentration of non-perturbing solutes, but also a balanced accumulation of solutes with opposing effects on enzymes. The selection of end-products of anaerobic metabolism also appears to be based, in part, on considerations of solute compatibility with enzyme function. Octopine is a non-perturbing solute, whereas arginine, which is condensed with pyruvate to form octopine, is very strongly perturbing. Succinate has marked stabilizing effects on protein structure. We conclude that the composition of the intracellular fluids of marine invertebrates reflects selection for osmolytes and end-products whose net effects create a cellular microenvironment which is conducive to optimal enzyme function and structure. The accumulation of compatible solutes may preclude the necessity for widespread changes in protein structure in adapting to concentrated or highly variable osmotic environments.     

Easy preparation of a large-size random gene mutagenesis library in Escherichia coli

Osmolytes are accumulated intracellularly to offset the effects of osmotic stress and protect cellular proteins against denaturation. Because different taxa accumulate different osmolytes, they can also be used as "dietary biomarkers" to study foraging. Potential osmolyte biomarkers include glycine betaine, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), homarine, dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), and the osmolyte analog arsenobetaine (AsB). We present a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay for the simultaneous measurement of these osmolytes in serum or plasma. Varying concentrations of osmolytes were added to serum and samples and extracted in 90% acetonitrile and 10% methanol containing 10 μM deuterated internal standards (D(9)-glycine betaine, D(9)-trimethylamine-N-oxide, (13)C(2)-arsenobetaine, D(6)-DMSP, and D(4)-homarine). Analytes were separated on a normal-phase modified silica column and detected using isotope dilution tandem mass spectrometry in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The assay was linear for all six compounds (r(2) values=0.983-0.996). Recoveries were greater than 85%, and precision for within-batch coefficients of variation (CVs) were less than 8.2% and between-batch CVs were less than 6.1%. Limits of detection ranged from 0.02 to 0.12 μmol/L. LC-MS/MS is a simple method with high throughput for measuring low levels of osmolytes that are often present in biological samples.     

Testing polyols' compatibility with Gibbs energy of stabilization of proteins under conditions in which they behave as compatible osmolytes

It is generally believed that compatible osmolytes stabilize proteins by shifting the denaturation equilibrium, native state <--> denatured state toward the left. We show here that if osmolytes are compatible with the functional activity of the protein at a given pH and temperature, they should not significantly perturb this denaturation equilibrium under the same experimental conditions. This conclusion was reached from the measurements of the activity parameters (K(m) and k(cat)) and guanidinium chloride-induced denaturations of lysozyme and ribonuclease-A in the presence of five polyols (sorbitol, glycerol, mannitol, xylitol and adonitol) at pH 7.0 and 25 degrees C.