Temperature dependence of the melittin folding equilibrium studied by means of fluorescence excitation spectra.

The temperature dependence of fluorescence excitation spectra is investigated. This gives information on melittin folding equilibrium complementary to that obtained from fluorescence emission studies. A fit of the excitation spectra of melittin with three Gaussian functions gives good results. It suggests that in melittin a reversal of La and Lb electronic states of tryptophane takes place. The separate La and Lb bands exhibit a temperature dependence of the width and maximum.