The technique of Hydrogen Deuterium exchange/Mass Spectrometry can be used to highlight regions of a protein’s structure that change upon binding to another protein or ligand. Day 343 of #LMB365 shows a butterfly plot or chart, showing the incorporation of deuterium into a protein over time (orange shortest, black the longest period). The upper half of the plot shows incorporation by the protein in complex, while the lower area indicates the incorporation by the protein alone. The plot can give insights into regions of intrinsic disorder as well as regions of higher order structure such as alpha-helices and beta-sheets.
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
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