Calculation of the relative metastabilities of proteins using the CHNOSZ software package

A software package called CHNOSZ implementing the revised Helgeson-Kirkham-Flowers (HKF) equations of state and group additivity for ionized unfolded aqueous proteins was developed. The program can be used to calculate standard molal Gibbs energies and other thermodynamic properties of reactions and to make chemical speciation and predominance diagrams that represent the metastable equilibrium distributions of proteins. The approach takes account of the chemical affinities of reactions in open systems characterized by the chemical potentials of basis species. The thermodynamic database included with the package permits application of the software to mineral and other inorganic systems as well as systems of proteins or other biomolecules.Metastable equilibrium activity diagrams were generated for model cell-surface proteins from archaea and bacteria adapted to growth in environments that differ in temperature and chemical conditions. The predicted metastable equilibrium distributions of the proteins can be compared with the optimal growth temperatures of the organisms and with geochemical variables. The results suggest that a thermodynamic assessment of protein metastability may be useful for integrating bio- and geochemical observations.Owing to the growing body of compositional data for microbial proteins and the exploration of environments that are extreme from the human standpoint, it has become possible in recent years to draw correlations between the compositions of proteins and environmental parameters such as temperature [1]. Accounting for the underlying causes of the observed correlations between environmental parameters and protein composition is an ongoing challenge. Biochemical approaches are based in part on the notion that proteins from thermophilic and hyperthermophilic organisms should have greater structural stabilities than their mesophilic counterparts [2]. Compositional features of thermophilic proteins that may enhance their structural stabiliti