Heat-induced gelation of globular proteins: part 3. Molecular studies on low pH beta-lactoglobulin gels.

Heat-set gels and aggregates from beta-lactoglobulin (beta-Lg), one of the major globular proteins from milk, have been studied on a molecular distance scale using negative-staining transmission electron microscopy (TEM), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The microscopy showed long linear aggregates forming in solutions at pH 2 (and sometimes 2.5) after prolonged heating. While there appeared to be no differences in aggregates formed under these conditions in H(2)O as compared with D(2)O, at all other pH and pD values, and in the presence of added salt, much shorter linear aggregates were formed. These became slightly more extended the further the pH was removed from pI. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) showed a diffuse beta-sheet halo at 2θ=19 degrees in patterns for both dried native and aggregated protein (irrespective of pH) with only a small change (sharpening) of this feature on heat treatment. Solution FTIR spectra, measured at pD=2, 2.5, 3, and 7, during heating, indicated shoulder development at 1612 cm(-1) in the carbonyl-stretching Amide I region diagnostic of a modest increase in intermolecular beta-sheet. In terms of the shoulder size, no distinctions could be made between acid and neutral aggregate structures. At all pHs, beta-lactoglobulin showed only limited secondary and tertiary structural changes in aggregation, in contrast to previous studies of insulin aggregation, where highly ordered crystalline fibrils were indicated. The current work has implications both in structural studies of food biopolymers and in ongoing studies of pathological protein self-assembly in disease states, such as spongiform encephalopathies.