Human Hsp60 chaperonin and its bacterial homolog GroEL were studied in solution.
Native GroEL is tetradecameric, while Hsp60 presents tetradecamers and heptamers.
Adding guanidine hydrochloride, both dissociation and unfolding processes occur.
Hsp60 is less stable in respect to GroEL.
Differently from Hsp60, GroEL disassembly has no heptameric intermediate.