Thermodynamic analysis of the effects of small inert cosolutes in the ultracentrifugation of noninteracting proteins.

Considerations of the effect of a small cosolute on the sedimentation equilibrium distribution for a noninteracting protein have led to the development of a simple procedure for evaluating both the molecular weight of the protein and the second virial coefficient describing the excluded volume interaction between protein and cosolute. Its application is illustrated by analysis of sedimentation equilibrium distributions for bovine thyroglobulin and horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase in the presence of a range of sucrose concentrations, and also of those for aldolase in the presence of urea to obtain the subunit molecular weight of this tetrameric enzyme. The effects of sucrose concentration on the sedimentation coefficients of thyroglobulin, catalase, and horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase are also examined to demonstrate that the second virial coefficients for protein-cosolute excluded volume interaction may be determined, albeit with less precision, from the cosolute concentration required to render the sedimentation coefficient zero by virtue of its effect on the buoyancy term. These findings serve to reinforce the fact that the effects of small cosolutes usually ascribed to changes in "protein solvation" are envisaged more realistically in terms of excluded volume.