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Probing weakly polar interactions in cytochrome c

Theoretical, statistical, and model studies suggest that proteins are stabilized by weakly polar attractions between sulfur atoms and properly oriented aromatic rings. The two sulfur‐containing amino acids, methionine and cysteine, occur frequently among functional alleles in random mutant libraries of Saccharomyces cerevisiae iso‐1‐cytochrome c genes at positions that form a weakly polar aromatic‐aromatic interaction in the wild‐type protein. To determine if a weakly polar sulfur‐aromatic interaction replaced the aromatic‐aromatic interaction, the structure and stability of two variants were examined. Phenylalanine 10, which interacts with tyrosine 97, was replaced by methionine and cysteine. The cysteine was modified to form the methionine and cystine analog, S‐methyl cysteine (CysSMe). Proton NMR studies indicate that changing Phe 10 to Met or CysSMe affects only local structure and that the structures of sulfur‐containing variants are nearly identical. Analysis of chemical shifts and nuclear Overhauser effect data indicates that both sulfur‐containing side chains are in position to form a weakly polar interaction with Tyr 97. The F10M and F10CSMe variants are 2–3 kcal mol−1 less stable than iso‐1‐cytochrome c at 300 K. Comparison of the stabilities of the F10M and F10CSMe variants allows evaluation of the potential weakly polar interaction between the additional sulfur atom of F10CSMe and the aromatic moiety of Tyr 97. The F10CSMe;C102T variant is 0.7 + 0.3 kcal mol−1 more stable than the F10M;C102T protein. The increased stability is explained by the difference in hydrophobicity of the sulfur‐containing side chains. We conclude that any weakly polar interaction between the additional sulfur and the aromatic ring is too weak to detect or is masked by destabilizing contributions to the free energy of denaturation.