Conformation of the fowl protamine, galline, and its binding properties to DNA

1. CD spectra showed that the fowl protamine, galline, has an unordered structure rich in reverse turns in neutral solution. Eight reverse turns were predicted to be present in the galline molecule on the basis of its amino acid sequence. Spectrophotometric analyses revealed that galline efficiently bound to DNA in 0.25 mM EDTA/10 mM Tricine-HCl, pH 7.4, but hardly so in 30 mM NaCl/3 mM sodium citrate, pH 7.0. Citrate ions bound specifically to the galline molecule, causing a conformational change in it. As a result, galline could not interact with DNA. 2. The concentration of unbound galline in a mixture of DNA and galline in 100 mM NaCl/50 mM Tricine-HCl, pH 7.4, at 37 C was determined by measurement of the intrinsic fluorescence of tyrosine residues of galline in the supernatant after ultracentrifugation of the mixture. The Scatchard plot showed positive co-operativity in the binding of galline to DNA and the binding parameters were determined: the co-operative binding constant (Kc) = 3.3 X 10(7)M-1, the co-operativity factor (q) = 800, and the number of nucleotides of DNA occupied by one galline molecule (n) = 28. The Kc and q values were intermediate between those for clupeine Z from herring sperm and S-methyl protamine from boar sperm. That is, the binding constants of protamine as to DNA decrease in the order of herring, fowl, and boar, while the co-operativities in binding increase in that order.