Which of the following usually causes denaturation of a protein?

A) high temperatures

B) change in pH

C) change in salt concentration

D) B and C

E) all of the above

E. All of the above

Explanation:

Protein denaturation: Protein in their native form are functional with either tertiary structure (single polypeptide) or quaternary structure (more than one polypeptide). Denaturaion is a process in which protein looses its quaternary, tertiary and seconday structure thereby lossing its function. Denaturation is due to breaking of several interactions such as electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding, hydrphobic interaction, vander wall's forces and disulphide linkages. But these denaturating agent do not break the peptide bond so protein remains in its primary structure which is a linear chain of amino acids. Hing temperature can break several linkages such as hydrogen boding and ionic bonding among amino acids, change in pH results in change in the charge of side groups in several amino acids there by affecting the interactions. Salts are also ionic in nature an they can disrupt the salt bridges in proteins.