Reversed-phase liquid chromatography of site-specific mutagenized staphylococcal nuclease : Gradient retention and correlations with amino acid-based predictive scales

Comparison of the gradient reversed-phase chromatographic retentions of twelve Staphylococcal nuclease mutants and the naturally occurring protein showed that the chain location and the chemical nature of the substituted amino acid(s) were equally significant in determining the retention. Correlations between the retention times of these nuclease mutants and of previously published data for interleukin 2 mutants and insulin variants with nineteen amino acid-based predictive scales revealed retention time to be significantly correlated to several scales. The use of mutagenized proteins allowed a more sensitive analysis of the individual amino acid contributions to retention than can be achieved by utilizing a more diverse set of proteins.