Prediction and validation of protein intermediate states from structurally rich ensembles and coarse grained simulations

Protein conformational changes are at the heart of cell functions, from signalling to ion transport. However, the transient nature of the intermediates along transition pathways hampers their experimental detection, making the underlying mechanisms elusive. Here we retrieve dynamic information on th...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Orellana, Laura, Yoluk, Ozge, Carrillo, Oliver, Orozco López, Modesto, Lindhal, Erik
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/102468
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/102468
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Models moleculars
Biofísica
Proteïnes
Molecular models
Biophysics
Proteins
Descripción
Sumario:Protein conformational changes are at the heart of cell functions, from signalling to ion transport. However, the transient nature of the intermediates along transition pathways hampers their experimental detection, making the underlying mechanisms elusive. Here we retrieve dynamic information on the actual transition routes from principal component analysis (PCA) of structurally-rich ensembles and, in combination with coarse-grained simulations, explore the conformational landscapes of five well-studied proteins. Modelling them as elastic networks in a hybrid elastic-network Brownian dynamics simulation (eBDIMS), we generate trajectories connecting stable end-states that spontaneously sample the crystallographic motions, predicting the structures of known intermediates along the paths. We also show that the explored non-linear routes can delimit the lowest energy passages between end-states sampled by atomistic molecular dynamics. The integrative methodology presented here provides a powerful framework to extract and expand dynamic pathway information from the Protein Data Bank, as well as to validate sampling methods in general.