Spectral analysis is one of the most popular methods of studying structural and functional properties of proteins. VSU’ scientists, associate professors at the Department of Biophysics and Biotechnology, Igor Lavrienko and Marina Kholyavka, Professor Valery Artyukhov, and an associate professor at the Department of Mathematical Physics and Information Technologies, Vladislav Chernov, suggested a new approach to studying the structure of proteins. The results of their study were published in a reputable journal “Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy”.
Valery Artyukhov says: “The approach can be used in various spheres, from biomedical studies for laboratory diagnostics to food and agricultural industries. This is possible due to the fact that the new algorithm of spectral analysis allows the real time monitoring of amino acid residues of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan in the structure of the studied protein.”
“This approach gives more accurate information about the origin of absorption bands in protein macromolecules as opposed to the trivial comparison of light absorption spectra of the studied biopolymer and free amino acids”, says Marina Kholyavka.
“The suggested algorithm of analysing the absorption spectra includes two stages. The first stage involves comparing the absorption spectra of the protein and its model differentiated with respect to the second-order derivative. The model is the total of absorption spectra of the free amino acids in the structure of the studied biopolymer. The second stage involves comparing the differentiated model spectrum with the spectra of the free amino acids. Since the parameters of absorption bands in the spectra of the protein molecules and amino acids are determined by their chromophores, i.e. functional groups that absorb the radiation, the analysis helps to find the number of the tested amino acid residues as well as to describe the chromophore microenvironment of these residues, and thus assess the structure and functions of the studied biomacromolecules”, said Igor Lavrienko.
