General shape and hapten-induced conformational changes of pig anti-dinitrophenyl antibody. A small-angle scattering study

Pig anti-dinitrophenyl antibodies were studied by neutron and X-ray small-angle scattering. Observed scattering curves show that the shapes of two antibody types, precipitating and non-precipitating, are similar, however the latter being more compact. A hapten binding induced conformational change of antibody is observed. This conformational change might be described as a contraction of the whole molecule via similarity transformation. The spatial models of pig antibody molecule based on the existing experimental data were designed. Most probable models have a cavity in the Fsub(c) part and the Fsub(ab) parts are either fully extended or slightly bent down to the Fsub(c) part