Thermal perturbation difference spectroscopy of Salmonella flagellin

The appropriateness of a two-state model for the previously reported thermal transition of $\text{Salmonella}$ flagellin and the reversibility of this process recently has been questioned by others. Spectrophotometric evidence is presented here that reveals two separate thermally-induced structural transitions in flagellin which may resolve apparent controversy. A low temperature transition (I) appears between 28 and 35°C with a midtransition temperature of 30.7°C. With increasing temperature in this transition region a progressive shift to the red of the absorbance band at 284 nm occurs. The latter, probably due to an infolding of tyrosyl residues, is paralleled by a decrease in the rate of polymerization of flagellin. The temperature profile for the spectral behavior of flagellin in transition I fulfills criteria for a two-state process and is fully reversible. A second transition, also reversible, is observed between 40 and 60°C with a midtransition temperature near 50°C. Transition II, observed as a blue spectral shift of the absorbance band at 277 nm, is better described as a multistate process. Tyrosyl residues appear to maintain the conformational integrity of the polymerizable state of flagellin.