SCN as a Local Probe of Protein Structural Dynamics

The dynamics of lysozyme is probed by attaching -SCN to all alanine-residues. The 1-dimensional infrared spectra exhibit frequency shifts in the position of the maximum absorption by 4 cm^-1 which is consistent with experiments in different solvents and indicates moderately strong interactions of the vibrational probe with its environment. Isotopic substitution ^12C → ^13C leads to a red-shift by -47 cm^-1 which is consistent with experiments with results on CN-substituted copper complexes in solution. The low-frequency, far-infrared part of the protein spectra contain label-specific information in the difference spectra when compared with the wild type protein. Depending on the positioning of the labels, local structural changes are observed. For example, introducing the -SCN label at Ala129 leads to breaking of the α-helical structure with concomitant change in the far-infrared spectrum. Finally, changes in the local hydration of SCN-labelled Alanine residues as a function of time can be related to angular reorientation of the label. It is concluded that -SCN is potentially useful for probing protein dynamics, both in the high-frequency (CN-stretch) and far-infrared part of the spectrum.