Environment of tryptophan residues in various conformational states of alpha-lactalbumin studied by time-resolved and steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy.

Decay curves for tryptophan fluorescence of bovine and human alpha-lactalbumin in different states (metal-free and Ca2+ or Mg2+-loaded states of the native and thermally denatured proteins) have been measured at different wavelengths. The curves are best fitted by a sum of three exponents assigned to emission of individual tryptophan residues. The results suggests that the red shift of the fluorescence spectrum of alpha-lactalbumin caused by release of the bound Ca2+ or thermal denaturation is due to changes in the environment of all emitting tryptophan residues.