Hill coefficient analysis of transmembrane helix dimerization

Here, we employed the Hill equation, used broadly to characterize cooperativity in protein-ligand binding, to describe the dimerization of transmembrane (TM) helices in hydrophobic environments. The Hill analysis of wild-type fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) TM domain dimerization gives a Hill coefficient of ~1 for lipid bilayers but only ~0.2 for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles. We propose that this finding is indicative of heterogeneity in FGFR3 TM dimer structure and stability in SDS micelles. We further speculate that (1) the Hill equation can be used as a tool to assess the existence of multiple structural states of TM dimers in different hydrophobic environments and (2) the structural heterogeneity, detectable by Hill analysis, may be the underlying reason for the broad peaks and the low resolution NMR studies of peptides in detergents.