Hydrophobicity scale for proteins based on inverse temperature transitions

In general, proteins fold with hydrophobia residues buried, away from water. Reversible protein folding due to hydrophobia interactions results from inverse temperature transitions where folding occurs on raising the temperature. Because homoiothermic animals constitute an infinite heat reservoir, it is the transition temperature, T_t, not the endothermic heat of the transition, that determines the hydrophobically folded state of polypeptides at body temperature. Reported here is a new hydrophobicity scale based on the values of T_t for each amino acid residue as a guest in a natural repeating peptide sequence, the high polymers of which exhibit reversible inverse temperature transitions. Significantly, a number of ways have been demonstrated for changing T_t such that reversibly lowering T_t, from above to below physiological temperature becomes a means of isothermally and reversibly driving hydrophobic folding. Accordingly, controlling T_t, becomes a mechanism whereby proteins can be induced to carry out isothermal free energy transduction. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.