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The large size of spectrin, the flexible protein promoting reversible deformation of red cells, has been an obstacle to elucidating the molecular mechanism of its function. By studying cloned fragments of the repeating unit domain, we have found a correspondence between positions of selected spectrin repeats in a tetramer with their stabilities of folding. Six fragments consisting of two spectrin repeats were selected for study primarily on the basis of the predicted secondary structures of their linker regions. Fragments with a putatively helical linker were more stable to urea- and heat-induced unfolding than those with a putatively nonhelical linker. Two of the less stably folded fragments, human erythroid alpha-spectrin repeats 13 and 14 (HEalpha13,14) and human erythroid beta-spectrin repeats 8 and 9 (HEbeta8,9), are located opposite each other on antiparallel spectrin dimers. At least partial unfolding of these repeats under physiological conditions indicates that they may serve as a hinge. Also less stably folded, the fragment of human erythroid alpha-spectrin repeats 4 and 5 (HEalpha4,5) lies opposite the site of interaction between the partial repeats at the C- and N-terminal ends of beta- and alpha-spectrin, respectively, on the opposing dimer. More stably folded fragments, human erythroid alpha-spectrin repeats 1 and 2 (HEalpha1,2) and human erythroid alpha-spectrin repeats 2 and 3 (HEalpha2,3), lie nearly opposite each other on antiparallel spectrin dimers of a tetramer. These clusterings along the spectrin tetramer of repeats with similar stabilities of folding may have relevance for spectrin function, particularly for its well known flexibility.

Stabilities of folding of clustered, two-repeat fragments of spectrin reveal a potential hinge in the human erythroid spectrin tetramer