Specific solvent effects on the thermal denaturation of ribonuclease. Effect of dimethyl sulfoxide and p-dioxane on thermo dynamics of denaturation.

Differential scanning calorimetry has been used to study the thermal denaturation of ribonuclease in aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide and acqueous p-dioxane. A two-state reversible denaturation occurs in acqueous dimethyl sulfoxide. The denaturation is irreversible in aqueous p-dioxane. The transition temperatuire decreases in both organic solvents, with p-dioxane producing a considerably greater effect. The enthalpy of the denaturation initially increases with increasing dimethyl sulfoxide concentration and then decreases at high concentrations. Similar behavior is observed in the entropy in the dimethyl sulfoxide solutions. The enthalpy of the denaturation decreases markedly with low p-dioxane concentrations. Changes in pH due to presence of organic solvent cannot account for the changes in enthalpy of denaturation. Addition of organic solvent tends to increase the pH of the ribonuclease solution. Higher pH in aqueous solutions gives a high transition temperature, whereas addition of organic solvent results in the opposite bahavior. The relative changes in the two solvents systems suggest that specific solvent effects occur and that destablization of the native state relative to the denatured state is greater with p-dioxane than with dimethyl sulfoxide.