scholarly journals Protein Interaction with Charged Macromolecules: From Model Polymers to Unfolded Proteins and Post-Translational Modifications

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Semenyuk ◽  
Vladimir Muronetz

Interaction of proteins with charged macromolecules is involved in many processes in cells. Firstly, there are many naturally occurred charged polymers such as DNA and RNA, polyphosphates, sulfated glycosaminoglycans, etc., as well as pronouncedly charged proteins such as histones or actin. Electrostatic interactions are also important for “generic” proteins, which are not generally considered as polyanions or polycations. Finally, protein behavior can be altered due to post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, sulfation, and glycation, which change a local charge of the protein region. Herein we review molecular modeling for the investigation of such interactions, from model polyanions and polycations to unfolded proteins. We will show that electrostatic interactions are ubiquitous, and molecular dynamics simulations provide an outstanding opportunity to look inside binding and reveal the contribution of electrostatic interactions. Since a molecular dynamics simulation is only a model, we will comprehensively consider its relationship with the experimental data.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1547
Author(s):  
Yukinobu Mizuhara ◽  
Mitsunori Takano

KIF1A is a kinesin family protein that moves over a long distance along the microtubule (MT) to transport synaptic vesicle precursors in neurons. A single KIF1A molecule can move toward the plus-end of MT in the monomeric form, exhibiting the characteristics of biased Brownian motion. However, how the bias is generated in the Brownian motion of KIF1A has not yet been firmly established. To elucidate this, we conducted a set of molecular dynamics simulations and observed the binding of KIF1A to MT. We found that KIF1A exhibits biased Brownian motion along MT as it binds to MT. Furthermore, we show that the bias toward the plus-end is generated by the ratchet-like energy landscape for the KIF1A-MT interaction, in which the electrostatic interaction and the negatively-charged C-terminal tail (CTT) of tubulin play an essential role. The relevance to the post-translational modifications of CTT is also discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 3088-3097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Frei ◽  
Andrei Istrate ◽  
Christian J Leumann

Here we report on the synthesis, biophysical properties and molecular modeling of oligonucleotides containing unsaturated 6’-fluoro[4.3.0]bicyclo nucleotides (6’F-bc4,3-DNA). Two 6’F-bc4,3 phosphoramidite building blocks (T and C) were synthesized starting from a previously described [3.3.0]bicyclic sugar. The conversion of this sugar to a gem-difluorinated tricyclic intermediate via difluorocarbene addition followed either by a NIS-mediated or Vorbrüggen nucleosidation yielded in both cases the β-tricyclic nucleoside as major anomer. Subsequent desilylation and cyclopropane ring opening of these tricyclic intermediates afforded the unsaturated 6’F-bc4,3 nucleosides. The successful incorporation of the corresponding phosphoramidite building blocks into oligonucleotides was achieved with tert-butyl hydroperoxide as oxidation agent. Thermal melting experiments of the modified duplexes disclosed a destabilizing effect versus DNA and RNA complements, but with a lesser degree of destabilization versus complementary DNA (ΔT m/mod = −1.5 to −3.7 °C). Molecular dynamics simulation on the nucleoside and oligonucleotide level revealed the preference of the C1’-exo/C2’-endo alignment of the furanose ring. Moreover, the simulation of duplexes with complementary RNA disclosed a DNA/RNA-type duplex structure suggesting that this modification might be a substrate for RNase H.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 3780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Yang ◽  
Wenying Zhang ◽  
Jie Cheng ◽  
Yanhong Nie ◽  
Qi Xin ◽  
...  

Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is a light-activated and non-selective cationic channel protein that can be easily expressed in specific neurons to control neuronal activity by light. Although ChR2 has been extensively used as an optogenetic tool in neuroscience research, the molecular mechanism of cation channel formation following retinal photoisomerization in ChR2 is not well understood. In this paper, studies of the closed and opened state ChR2 structures are presented. The formation of the cationic channel is elucidated in atomic detail using molecular dynamics simulations on the all-trans-retinal (ChR2-trans) configuration of ChR2 and its isomerization products, 13-cis-retinal (ChR2-cis) configuration, respectively. Photoisomerization of the retinal-chromophore causes the destruction of interactions among the crucial residues (e.g., E90, E82, N258, and R268) around the channel and the extended H-bond network mediated by numerous water molecules, which opens the pore. Steering molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations show that the electrostatic interactions at the binding sites in intracellular gate (ICG) and central gate (CG) can influence the transmembrane transport of Na+ in ChR2-cis obviously. Potential of mean force (PMF) constructed by SMD and umbrella sampling also found the existing energy wells at these two binding sites during the transportation of Na+. These wells partly hinder the penetration of Na+ into cytoplasm through the ion channel. This investigation provides a theoretical insight on the formation mechanism of ion channels and the mechanism of ion permeation.


1995 ◽  
Vol 408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan McKenney ◽  
Ruth Pachter ◽  
Soumya Patnaik ◽  
Wade Adams

AbstractIn our continuing efforts towards designing materials with controlled optical properties, largescale molecular dynamics simulations of a molecular cluster of a liquid crystalline cyclic siloxane are still limited by the size of the molecular system. Such simulations enable evaluation of the orientation order parameter of the system, as well as modelling the behavior of the material in bulk. This study summarizes improvements in the implementation of the fast multipole algorithm for computing electrostatic interactions which is included in the molecular dynamics program PMD[7, 8], such as the elimination of computations for empty cells and the use of optimal interaction lists. Moreover, an improved implementation of a 3-D Fast Multipole Method (FMM3D) based on the algorithm previously proposed[1, 2] is described in detail. The structure of the module, details of the expansions, parallelization, and its integration with the molecular dynamics simulation code are explained in detail. Finally, the utility of this approach in the study of liquid crystalline materials is briefly illustrated.


1998 ◽  
Vol 538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiqiang Wang ◽  
James Lupo ◽  
Soumya S. Patnaik ◽  
Alan McKenney ◽  
Ruth Pachter

AbstractThe Fast Multipole Method (FMM) offers an efficient way (order O(N)) to handle long range electrostatic interactions, thus enabling more realistic molecular dynamics simulations of large molecular systems. The performance of the fast molecular dynamics (FMD) code, a parallel MD code being developed in our group, using the three-dimensional fast multipole method, shows a good speedup. The application to the full atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulation of a liquid crystalline droplet of 4-n-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) molecules, of size 35,872 atoms, shows strong surface effects on various orientational order parameters.


Author(s):  
Toshihiro Kaneko ◽  
Kenji Yasuoka ◽  
Ayori Mitsutake ◽  
Xiao Cheng Zeng

Multicanonical molecular dynamics simulations are applied, for the first time, to study the liquid-solid and solid-solid transitions in Lennard-Jones (LJ) clusters. The transition temperatures are estimated based on the peak position in the heat capacity versus temperature curve. For LJ31, LJ58 and LJ98, our results on the solid-solid transition temperature are in good agreement with previous ones. For LJ309, the predicted liquid-solid transition temperature is also in agreement with previous result.


RSC Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 5507-5515
Author(s):  
Liang Song ◽  
Feng-Qi Zhao ◽  
Si-Yu Xu ◽  
Xue-Hai Ju

The bimolecular and fused ring compounds are found in the high-temperature pyrolysis of NONA using ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 890 ◽  
pp. 252-259
Author(s):  
Le Wang ◽  
Guan Cheng Jiang ◽  
Xin Lin ◽  
Xian Min Zhang ◽  
Qi Hui Jiang

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the dissociation inhibiting mechanism of lecithin for structure I hydrates. Adsorption characteristics of lecithin and PVP (poly (N-vinylpyrrolidine)) on the hydrate surfaces were performed in the NVT ensemble at temperatures of 277K and the hydrate dissociation process were simulated in the NPT ensemble at same temperature. The results show that hydrate surfaces with lecithin is more stable than the ones with PVP for the lower potential energy. The conformation of lecithin changes constantly after the balanced state is reached while the PVP molecular dose not. Lecithin molecule has interaction with lecithin nearby and hydrocarbon-chains of lecithin molecules will form a network to prevent the diffusion of water and methane molecules, which will narrow the available space for hydrate methane and water movement. Compared with PVP-hydrate simulation, analysis results (snapshots and mass density profile) of the dissociation simulations show that lecithin-hydrate dissociates more slowly.


1994 ◽  
Vol 373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger E. Stoller

AbstractA series of high-energy, up to 20 keV, displacement cascades in iron have been investigated for times up to 200 ps at 100 K using the method of molecular dynamics simulation. Thesimulations were carried out using the MOLDY code and a modified version of the many-bodyinteratomic potential developed by Finnis and Sinclair. The paper focuses on those results obtained at the highest energies, 10 and 20 keV. The results indicate that the fraction of the Frenkel pairs surviving in-cascade recombination remains fairly high in iron and that the fraction of the surviving point defects that cluster is lower than in materials such as copper. In particular, vacancy clustering appears to be inhibited in iron. Some of the interstitial clusters were observed to exhibit an unexpectedly complex, three-dimensional morphology. The observations are discussed in terms of their relevance to microstructural evolution and mechanical property changes in irradiated iron-based alloys.


1988 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davy Y. Lo ◽  
Tom A. Tombrello ◽  
Mark H. Shapiro ◽  
Don E. Harrison

ABSTRACTMany-body forces obtained by the Embedded-Atom Method (EAM) [41 are incorporated into the description of low energy collisions and surface ejection processes in molecular dynamics simulations of sputtering from metal targets. Bombardments of small, single crystal Cu targets (400–500 atoms) in three different orientations ({100}, {110}, {111}) by 5 keV Ar+ ions have been simulated. The results are compared to simulations using purely pair-wise additive interactions. Significant differences in the spectra of ejected atoms are found.


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