Abstract: | The ionization characteristics of the hydrogen-bonded His 12 N1 proton observed to titrate between 11 to 13 ppm in the nmr spectrum of ribonuclease A in H2O solution are compared with the ionization characteristics of the four histidine C2 protons in the enzyme. Comparison of the pKa's of the enzyme in H2O and D2O in the absence and presence of cytidine monophosphate (?5′, ?3′, and ?2′) inhibitors, line widths in the presence of Cu II at pH 3.6 and 5.6, and chemical shifts in the presence of AgNO3 permit a correlation of the exchangeable His 12 N1 proton with the active site histidine C2 proton exhibiting the lower ionization pKa. The histidines with pKa of 5.1 and 5.6 in ribonuclease A in the absence of salt are assigned in this study to His 12 and His 119, respectively. |