Transient clustering in a protein solution

(Received 19 October 2001 and Received in final form 13 December 2001)

Abstract
It is known that protein-protein interactions may lead, in some conditions, to the formation of structurally stable multimers. In this paper we point out that another possible effect of attractive interactions is the spontaneous formation of transient clusters. By carefully combining static and dynamic light scattering data from -lactoglobulin (BLGA) solutions, we show that for this specific system aggregation effects rather fit the latter description. We suggest that other association processes in protein solutions, and perhaps in supercooled simple fluids, may parallel BLGA clustering.