Simulation studies of the interactions between membrane proteins and detergents

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 910-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.J. Bond ◽  
J. Cuthbertson ◽  
M.S.P. Sansom

Interactions between membrane proteins and detergents are important in biophysical and structural studies and are also biologically relevant in the context of folding and transport. Despite a paucity of high-resolution data on protein–detergent interactions, novel methods and increased computational power enable simulations to provide a means of understanding such interactions in detail. Simulations have been used to compare the effect of lipid or detergent on the structure and dynamics of membrane proteins. Moreover, some of the longest and most complex simulations to date have been used to observe the spontaneous formation of membrane protein–detergent micelles. Common mechanistic steps in the micelle self-assembly process were identified for both α-helical and β-barrel membrane proteins, and a simple kinetic mechanism was proposed. Recently, simplified (i.e. coarse-grained) models have been utilized to follow long timescale transitions in membrane protein–detergent assemblies.

Structure ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn A. Scott ◽  
Peter J. Bond ◽  
Anthony Ivetac ◽  
Alan P. Chetwynd ◽  
Syma Khalid ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (W1) ◽  
pp. W456-W461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mangesh Damre ◽  
Alessandro Marchetto ◽  
Alejandro Giorgetti

Abstract Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of membrane proteins have been shown to be extremely useful for characterizing the molecular features underlying their function, but require high computational power, limiting the understanding of complex events in membrane proteins, e.g. ion channels gating, GPCRs activation. To overcome this issue, it has been shown that coarse-grained approaches, although requiring less computational power, are still capable of correctly describing molecular events underlying big conformational changes in biological systems. Here, we present the Martini coarse-grained membrane protein dynamics (MERMAID), a publicly available web interface that allows the user to prepare and run coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) simulations and to analyse the trajectories.


Soft Matter ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (21) ◽  
pp. 4301-4310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osman Kahraman ◽  
Christoph A. Haselwandter

Azimuthal variations in membrane protein hydrophobic thickness can yield self-assembly of distinctive protein lattices and produce membrane compartmentalization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 971-979
Author(s):  
Andy M. Lau ◽  
Ruyu Jia ◽  
Richard T. Bradshaw ◽  
Argyris Politis

HDX-MS has emerged as a powerful tool to interrogate the structure and dynamics of proteins and their complexes. Recent advances in the methodology and instrumentation have enabled the application of HDX-MS to membrane proteins. Such targets are challenging to investigate with conventional strategies. Developing new tools are therefore pertinent for improving our fundamental knowledge of how membrane proteins function in the cell. Importantly, investigating this central class of biomolecules within their native lipid environment remains a challenge but also a key goal ahead. In this short review, we outline recent progresses in dissecting the conformational mechanisms of membrane proteins using HDX-MS. We further describe how the use of computational strategies can aid the interpretation of experimental data and enable visualisation of otherwise intractable membrane protein states. This unique integration of experiments with computations holds significant potential for future applications.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Bertie Ansell ◽  
Luke Curran ◽  
Michael R Horrell ◽  
Tanadet Pipatpolkai ◽  
Suzanne C Letham ◽  
...  

Specific interactions of lipids with membrane proteins contribute to protein stability and function. Multiple lipid interactions surrounding a membrane protein are often identified in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and are, increasingly, resolved in cryo-EM densities. Determining the relative importance of specific interaction sites is aided by determination of lipid binding affinities by experimental or simulation methods. Here, we develop a method for determining protein-lipid binding affinities from equilibrium coarse-grained MD simulations using binding saturation curves, designed to mimic experimental protocols. We apply this method to directly obtain affinities for cholesterol binding to multiple sites on a range of membrane proteins and compare our results with free energies obtained from density-based equilibrium methods and with potential of mean force calculations, getting good agreement with respect to the ranking of affinities for different sites. Thus, our binding saturation method provides a robust, high-throughput alternative for determining the relative consequence of individual sites seen in e.g. cryo-EM derived membrane protein structures surrounded by a plethora of ancillary lipid densities.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Wilm

1.AbstractMembrane proteins carry out a wide variety of biological functions. The reproduction of specific properties that have evolved over millions of years of biological membranes in a technically controlled environment is of significant interest. Here a method is presented that allows the self-assembly of a macroscopically large, freely transportable membrane with Outer membrane porin G from Escherichia Coli. The technique does not use protein specific characteristics and therefore, could represent a method for the generation of extended layers of membranes with arbitrary membrane protein content. Such in-vitro systems are relevant in the study of membrane-protein function and structure and the self-assembly of membrane-based protein complexes. They might become important for the incorporation of the lipid-membranes in technological devices.


2004 ◽  
Vol 845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojun Zhao ◽  
Yusuke Nagai ◽  
Shuguang Zhang

ABSTRACTMembrane protein study critically depends on detergents, which are amphilhilic molecules containing a hydrophilic “head” and a hydrophobic “tail” to mimic biological lipid bilayers to stabilize membrane proteins. However, detergents are not fully equivalent to lipid bilayers and in fact they only partly mimic lipid bilayers function. Consequently, membrane proteins in detergent solution are more or less denatured because detergents can not effectively stabilize membrane protein structures. Therefore, it is urgent to develop new types of detergents for more effectively stabilizing membrane proteins. Previously, we have reported a new type of self-assembly peptide detergents containing a hydrophilic head composed of either a negatively charged aspartic acid or a positively charged lysine and a tail of hydrophobic amino acids of six connective alanines. This new peptide detergent has been shown to be more effective for protecting membrane protein PS I structure than that the conventional detergent does. However, what type of physical structures peptide detergent can form is unclear yet. Here we presented our AFM and DSL analysis of the peptide detergent A6D, which not only form mixed micelles with n-Octyl-beta-D-Glucoside (OG) to solubilize membrane protein rhodopsin, but also can mimic lipid bilayers to keep rhodopsin in lipid-like vesicles for its structure preservation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document