Solvent induced conformational changes for the altered activity of laccase: A molecular dynamics study

2022 ◽  
Vol 423 ◽  
pp. 127123
Author(s):  
Rokesh Radhakrishnan ◽  
Bharat Manna ◽  
Amit Ghosh
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Shen ◽  
Zhi Yue ◽  
Helen Zgurskaya ◽  
Wei Chen

AcrB is the inner-membrane transporter of E. coli AcrAB-TolC tripartite efflux complex, which plays a major role in the intrinsic resistance to clinically important antibiotics. AcrB pumps a wide range of toxic substrates by utilizing the proton gradient between periplasm and cytoplasm. Crystal structures of AcrB revealed three distinct conformational states of the transport cycle, substrate access, binding and extrusion, or loose (L), tight (T) and open (O) states. However, the specific residue(s) responsible for proton binding/release and the mechanism of proton-coupled conformational cycling remain controversial. Here we use the newly developed membrane hybrid-solvent continuous constant pH molecular dynamics technique to explore the protonation states and conformational dynamics of the transmembrane domain of AcrB. Simulations show that both Asp407 and Asp408 are deprotonated in the L/T states, while only Asp408 is protonated in the O state. Remarkably, release of a proton from Asp408 in the O state results in large conformational changes, such as the lateral and vertical movement of transmembrane helices as well as the salt-bridge formation between Asp408 and Lys940 and other sidechain rearrangements among essential residues.Consistent with the crystallographic differences between the O and L protomers, simulations offer dynamic details of how proton release drives the O-to-L transition in AcrB and address the controversy regarding the proton/drug stoichiometry. This work offers a significant step towards characterizing the complete cycle of proton-coupled drug transport in AcrB and further validates the membrane hybrid-solvent CpHMD technique for studies of proton-coupled transmembrane proteins which are currently poorly understood. <p><br></p>


Author(s):  
Balaji Selvam ◽  
Ya-Chi Yu ◽  
Liqing Chen ◽  
Diwakar Shukla

<p>The SWEET family belongs to a class of transporters in plants that undergoes large conformational changes to facilitate transport of sugar molecules across the cell membrane. However, the structures of their functionally relevant conformational states in the transport cycle have not been reported. In this study, we have characterized the conformational dynamics and complete transport cycle of glucose in OsSWEET2b transporter using extensive molecular dynamics simulations. Using Markov state models, we estimated the free energy barrier associated with different states as well as 1 for the glucose the transport mechanism. SWEETs undergoes structural transition to outward-facing (OF), Occluded (OC) and inward-facing (IF) and strongly support alternate access transport mechanism. The glucose diffuses freely from outside to inside the cell without causing major conformational changes which means that the conformations of glucose unbound and bound snapshots are exactly same for OF, OC and IF states. We identified a network of hydrophobic core residues at the center of the transporter that restricts the glucose entry to the cytoplasmic side and act as an intracellular hydrophobic gate. The mechanistic predictions from molecular dynamics simulations are validated using site-directed mutagenesis experiments. Our simulation also revealed hourglass like intermediate states making the pore radius narrower at the center. This work provides new fundamental insights into how substrate-transporter interactions actively change the free energy landscape of the transport cycle to facilitate enhanced transport activity.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 6709
Author(s):  
Xiao-Xuan Shi ◽  
Peng-Ye Wang ◽  
Hong Chen ◽  
Ping Xie

The transition between strong and weak interactions of the kinesin head with the microtubule, which is regulated by the change of the nucleotide state of the head, is indispensable for the processive motion of the kinesin molecular motor on the microtubule. Here, using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, the interactions between the kinesin head and tubulin are studied on the basis of the available high-resolution structural data. We found that the strong interaction can induce rapid large conformational changes of the tubulin, whereas the weak interaction cannot. Furthermore, we found that the large conformational changes of the tubulin have a significant effect on the interaction of the tubulin with the head in the weak-microtubule-binding ADP state. The calculated binding energy of the ADP-bound head to the tubulin with the large conformational changes is only about half that of the tubulin without the conformational changes.


2015 ◽  
Vol 119 (46) ◽  
pp. 14594-14603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Juul Andersen ◽  
Julie Grouleff ◽  
Perri Needham ◽  
Ross C. Walker ◽  
Frank Jensen

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (15) ◽  
pp. 2123-2139 ◽  
Author(s):  
BIN XUE ◽  
JUN WANG ◽  
WEI WANG

We study the "folding" behaviors of homopolymers with one end fixed. By using canonical ensemble molecular dynamics simulation method, we observe the conformational changes during folding processes. Long chains collapse to the helical nuclei, then regroup to helix from the free-end to form the compact conformations through the middle stages of helix-like coil and helix-like cone, while short chains do not apparently have the above mentioned middle stages. Through simulated annealing, the native conformation of homopolymer chain in our model is found to be helix. We show the relations between specific heat C v (T) and radius of gyration R g (T) as functions of temperature, chain length and the interaction strength, respectively. We find that these two quantities match well and can be combined to interpret the "folding" process of the homopolymer. It is found that the collapse temperature Tθ and the native-like folding temperature T f do not change with the chain length in our model, however the interaction strength affects the values of Tθ and T f .


2008 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Rakic ◽  
Petar Mitrasinovic

The present study characterizes using molecular dynamics simulations the behavior of the GAA (1186-1188) hairpin triloops with their closing c-g base pairs in large ribonucleoligand complexes (PDB IDs: 1njn, 1nwy, 1jzx). The relative energies of the motifs in the complexes with respect to that in the reference structure (unbound form of rRNA; PDB ID: 1njp) display the trends that agree with those of the conformational parameters reported in a previous study1 utilizing the de novo pseudotorsional (?,?) approach. The RNA regions around the actual RNA-ligand contacts, which experience the most substantial conformational changes upon formation of the complexes were identified. The thermodynamic parameters, based on a two-state conformational model of RNA sequences containing 15, 21 and 27 nucleotides in the immediate vicinity of the particular binding sites, were evaluated. From a more structural standpoint, the strain of a triloop, being far from the specific contacts and interacting primarily with other parts of the ribosome, was established as a structural feature which conforms to the trend of the average values of the thermodynamic variables corresponding to the three motifs defined by the 15-, 21- and 27-nucleotide sequences. From a more functional standpoint, RNA-ligand recognition is suggested to be presumably dictated by the types of ligands in the complexes.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. e0121092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Bennion ◽  
Sebnem G. Essiz ◽  
Edmond Y. Lau ◽  
Jean-Luc Fattebert ◽  
Aiyana Emigh ◽  
...  

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