Thermodynamics of the dimer-decamer transition of reduced human and plant 2-cys peroxiredoxin

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is a powerful technique for investigating self-association processes of protein complexes and was expected to reveal quantitative data on peroxiredoxin oligomerization by directly measuring the thermodynamic parameters of dimer-dimer interaction. Recombinant classical 2-cysteine peroxoredoxins from Homo sapiens, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Pisum sativum as well as a carboxy-terminally truncated variant were subjected to ITC analysis by stepwise injection into the reaction vessel under various redox conditions. The direct measurement of the decamer-dimer equilibrium of reduced peroxiredoxin revealed a critical concentration in the very low micromolar range. The data suggest a cooperative assembly above this critical transition concentration where a nucleus facilitates assembly. The rather abrupt transition indicates that assembly processes do not occur below the critical transition concentration while oligomerization is efficiently triggered above it. The magnitude of the measured enthalpy confirmed the endothermic nature of the peroxiredoxin oligomerization. Heterocomplexes between peroxiredoxin polypeptides from different species were not formed. We conclude that a functional constraint conserved the dimer-decamer transition with highly similar critical transition concentrations despite emerging sequence variation during evolution.