An Immunologic Approach to the Conformational Equilibria of Polypeptides

Certain antibodies are particularly well-suited for the study of the conformational equilibria of polypeptide fragments of nuclease in solution. Here, Anfinsen, Schechter, Sachs, and Eastlake hypothesized that such fragments actually existed in solution in conformational equilibrium, components of which were sufficiently similar to the native conformation that antibodies directed to the native molecule could bind. They were able to validate this hypothesis by using synthetic polypeptide fragments, which were already known to induce folding of complimentary fragments.