CiteULike: cactus Wang

Entropic contributions and the influence of the hydrophobic environment in promiscuous protein-protein association

Chia-En Chang — 2008-05-28T18:47:22-00:00

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 105, No. 21. (27 May 2008), pp. 7456-7461.

The mechanisms by which a promiscuous protein can strongly interact with several different proteins using the same binding interface are not completely understood. An example is protein kinase A (PKA), which uses a single face on its docking/dimerization domain to interact with multiple A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAP) that localize it to different parts of the cell. In the current study, the configurational entropy contributions to the binding between the AKAP protein HT31 with the D/D domain of RII alpha-regulatory subunit of PKA were examined. The results show that the majority of configurational entropy loss for the interaction was due to decreased fluctuations within rotamer states of the side chains. The result is in contrast to the widely held approximation that the decrease in the number of rotamer states available to the side chains forms the major component. Further analysis showed that there was a direct linear relationship between total configurational entropy and the number of favorable, alternative contacts available within hydrophobic environments. The hydrophobic binding pocket of the D/D domain provides alternative contact points for the side chains of AKAP peptides that allow them to adopt different binding conformations. The increase in binding conformations provides an increase in binding entropy and hence binding affinity. We infer that a general strategy for a promiscuous protein is to provide alternative contact points at its interface to increase binding affinity while the plasticity required for binding to multiple partners is retained. Implications are discussed for understanding and treating diseases in which promiscuous protein interactions are used. 10.1073/pnas.0800452105

A phase diagram for jammed matter

Chaoming Song — 2008-05-29T14:31:12-00:00

Nature, Vol. 453, No. 7195., pp. 629-632.

Intrinsic noise, dissipation cost, and robustness of cellular networks: The underlying energy landscape of MAPK signal transduction

Saul Lapidus — 2008-04-18T18:35:19-00:00

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (17 April 2008), 0708708105.

We develop a probabilistic method for analyzing global features of a cellular network under intrinsic statistical fluctuations, which is important when there are finite numbers of molecules. By making a self-consistent mean field approximation of splitting the variables in order to reduce the large number of degrees of freedom, which is reasonable for a not very strongly interacting network, we discovered that the underlying energy landscape of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) signal transduction network (with experimentally measured or inferred parameters such as chemical reaction rate coefficients in the network) is funneled toward a global minimum characterized by the nonequilibrium steady-state fixed point of the system at the end of the signal transduction process. For this system, we also show that the energy landscape is robust against intrinsic fluctuations and random perturbation to the inherent chemical reaction rates. The ratio of the slope versus the roughness of the energy landscape becomes a quantitative measure of robustness and stability of the network. Furthermore, we quantify the dissipation cost of this nonequilibrium system through entropy production, caused by the nonequilibrium flux in the system. We found that a lower dissipation cost corresponds to a more robust network. This least dissipation property might provide a design principle for robust and functional networks. Finally, we find the possibility of bistable and oscillatory-like solutions, which are important for cell fate decisions, upon perturbations. The method described here can be used in a variety of biological networks. 10.1073/pnas.0708708105

The globular tail domain puts on the brake to stop the ATPase cycle of myosin Va

Xiang-Dong Li — 2008-02-13T08:35:41-00:00

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 105, No. 4. (29 January 2008), pp. 1140-1145.

Myosin Va is a well known processive motor involved in transport of organelles. A tail-inhibition model is generally accepted for the regulation of myosin Va: inhibited myosin Va is in a folded conformation such that the tail domain interacts with and inhibits myosin Va motor activity. Recent studies indicate that it is the C-terminal globular tail domain (GTD) that directly inhibits the motor activity of myosin Va. In the present study, we identified a conserved acidic residue in the motor domain (Asp-136) and two conserved basic residues in the GTD (Lys-1706 and Lys-1779) as critical residues for this regulation. Alanine mutations of these conserved charged residues not only abolished the inhibition of motor activity by the GTD but also prevented myosin Va from forming a folded conformation. We propose that Asp-136 forms ionic interactions with Lys-1706 and Lys-1779. This assignment locates the GTD-binding site in a pocket of the motor domain, formed by the N-terminal domain, converter, and the calmodulin in the first IQ motif. We propose that binding of the GTD to the motor domain prevents the movement of the converter/lever arm during ATP hydrolysis cycle, thus inhibiting the chemical cycle of the motor domain. 10.1073/pnas.0709741105

The Unbinding of ATP from F1-ATPase

Iris Antes — 2007-12-06T13:24:34-00:00

Biophys. J., Vol. 85, No. 2. (1 August 2003), pp. 695-706.

Using molecular dynamics, we study the unbinding of ATP in F1-ATPase from its tight binding state to its weak binding state. The calculations are made feasible through use of interpolated atomic structures from Wang and Oster [Nature 1998, 396: 279-282]. These structures are applied to atoms distant from the catalytic site. The forces from these distant atoms gradually drive a large primary region through a series of sixteen equilibrated steps that trace the hinge bending conformational change in the beta-subunit that drives rotation ofgamma -subunit. As the rotation progresses, we find a sequential weakening and breaking of the hydrogen bonds between the ATP molecule and thealpha - and beta-subunits of the ATPase. This finding agrees with the "binding-zipper" model [Oster and Wang, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 2000, 1458: 482-510.] In this model, the progressive formation of the hydrogen bonds is the energy source driving the rotation of thegamma -shaft during hydrolysis. Conversely, the corresponding sequential breaking of these bonds is driven by rotation of the shaft during ATP synthesis. Our results for the energetics during rotation suggest that the nucleotide's coordination with Mg2+ during binding and release is necessary to account for the observed high efficiency of the motor.

Configuration-dependent diffusion can shift the kinetic transition state and barrier height of protein folding

Jorge Chahine — 2007-09-10T17:36:11-00:00

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (5 September 2007), 0606506104.

Edited by Jose N. Onuchic, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved June 26, 2007 (received for review July 29, 2006)We show that diffusion can play an important role in protein-folding kinetics. We explicitly calculate the diffusion coefficient of protein folding in a lattice model. We found that diffusion typically is configuration- or reaction coordinate-dependent. The diffusion coefficient is found to be decreasing with respect to the progression of folding toward the native state, which is caused by the collapse to a compact state constraining the configurational space for exploration. The configuration- or position-dependent diffusion coefficient has a significant contribution to the kinetics in addition to the thermodynamic free-energy barrier. It effectively changes (increases in this case) the kinetic barrier height as well as the position of the corresponding transition state and therefore modifies the folding kinetic rates as well as the kinetic routes. The resulting folding time, by considering both kinetic diffusion and the thermodynamic folding free-energy profile, thus is slower than the estimation from the thermodynamic free-energy barrier with constant diffusion but is consistent with the results from kinetic simulations. The configuration- or coordinate-dependent diffusion is especially important with respect to fast folding, when there is a small or no free-energy barrier and kinetics is controlled by diffusion. Including the configurational dependence will challenge the transition state theory of protein folding. The classical transition state theory will have to be modified to be consistent. The more detailed folding mechanistic studies involving phi value analysis based on the classical transition state theory also will have to be modified quantitatively. 10.1073/pnas.0606506104

Limping of Homodimeric Kinesin Motors

Ping Xie — 2007-05-07T08:28:21-00:00

Journal of Molecular Biology, Vol. 366, No. 3. (23 February 2007), pp. 976-985.

Conventional kinesin, a homodimeric motor protein that transports cargo in various cells, walks limpingly along microtubule. Here, based on our previously proposed partially coordinated hand-over-hand model, we present a new mechanism for the limping behaviors of both wild-type and mutant kinesin homodimers. The limping is caused by different vertical forces acting on the heads in two successive steps during the processive movement of the dimer. From the model, various theoretical results, such as the dependences of the mean dwell time and dwell time ratio on the coiled-coil length and on the external load as well as the effect of vertical force on velocity, are in good agreement with previous experimental results. We predict that a high degree of limping will correlate strongly with a high sensitivity of ATP turnover rate to upwards force.