Estudis moleculars sobre la ribonucleasa A: catàlisi, interacció enzim-substrat i plegament

Bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A is a well known enzyme which has been used as a general model for structure-function relationship studies of nucleases. In the present project, studies about the catalytic process, enzyme-substrate binding and folding are covered. The functional role of non-catalytic phosphate binding subsites adjacent to the catalytic site will be analysed. Likewise, studies about the mobility of amino acid residues of the catalytic and non-catalytic sites will be carried out. The protein folding studies will be focused on the contribution of hydrophobic forces of the C-terminal amino acid residues on the global stability of the protein. Protein engineering by site direct mutagenesis will be applied to these studies.