Evidence of functional protein dynamics from X-ray crystallographic ensembles.

It is widely recognized that representing a protein as a single static conformation is inadequate to describe the dynamics essential to the performance of its biological function. We contrast the amino acid displacements below and above the protein dynamical transition temperature, T(D)∼215K, of hen egg white lysozyme using X-ray crystallography ensembles that are analyzed by molecular dynamics simulations as a function of temperature. We show that measuring structural variations across an ensemble of X-ray derived models captures the activation of conformational states that are of functional importance just above T(D), and they remain virtually identical to structural motions measured at 300K.

Statistics and physical origins of pK and ionization state changes upon protein-ligand binding.

This work investigates statistical prevalence and overall physical origins of changes in charge states of receptor proteins upon ligand binding. These changes are explored as a function of the ligand type (small molecule, protein, and nucleic acid), and distance from the binding region. Standard continuum solvent methodology is used to compute, on an equal footing, pK changes upon ligand binding for a total of 5899 ionizable residues in 20 protein-protein, 20 protein-small molecule, and 20 protein-nucleic acid high-resolution complexes.

The influence of protein dynamics on the success of computational enzyme design.

We characterize the molecular dynamics of a previously described computational de novo designed enzyme optimized to perform a multistep retrol-aldol reaction when engineered into a TIM barrel protein scaffold. The molecular dynamics simulations show that the protein dynamics under physiological conditions of temperature and aqueous environment distorts the designed geometric factors of the substrate-enzyme reaction intermediates, such that catalysis is limited by the primary retrol-aldol step of proton abstraction from the covalently bound substrate and its interactions with a histidine-aspartate dyad. These results emphasize that computational enzyme designs will benefit from considerations of dynamical fluctuations when optimizing active site geometries.

How hot? Systematic convergence of the replica exchange method using multiple reservoirs.

We have devised a systematic approach to converge a replica exchange molecular dynamics simulation by dividing the full temperature range into a series of higher temperature reservoirs and a finite number of lower temperature subreplicas. A defined highest temperature reservoir of equilibrium conformations is used to help converge a lower but still hot temperature subreplica, which in turn serves as the high-temperature reservoir for the next set of lower temperature subreplicas. The process is continued until an optimal temperature reservoir is reached to converge the simulation at the target temperature.

Atomic level computational identification of ligand migration pathways between solvent and binding site in myoglobin.

Myoglobin is a globular protein involved in oxygen storage and transport. No consensus yet exists on the atomic level mechanism by which oxygen and other small nonpolar ligands move between the myoglobin's buried heme, which is the ligand binding site, and surrounding solvent. This study uses room temperature molecular dynamics simulations to provide a complete atomic level picture of ligand migration in myoglobin.

Structure and dynamics of the Abeta(21-30) peptide from the interplay of NMR experiments and molecular simulations.

We combine molecular dynamics simulations and new high-field NMR experiments to describe the solution structure of the Abeta(21-30) peptide fragment that may be relevant for understanding structural mechanisms related to Alzheimer's disease. By using two different empirical force-field combinations, we provide predictions of the three-bond scalar coupling constants ((3)J(H(N)H(alpha))), chemical-shift values, (13)C relaxation parameters, and rotating-frame nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (ROESY) crosspeaks that can then be compared directly to the same observables measured in the corresponding NMR experiment of Abeta(21-30). We find robust prediction of the (13)C relaxation parameters and medium-range ROESY crosspeaks by using new generation TIP4P-Ew water and Amber ff99SB protein force fields, in which the NMR validates that the simulation yields both a structurally and dynamically correct ensemble over the entire Abeta(21-30) peptide.

A computational study of nucleosomal DNA flexibility.

Molecular dynamics simulations of the nucleosome core particle and its isolated DNA free in solution are reported. The simulations are based on the implicit solvent methodology and provide insights into the nature of large-scale structural fluctuations and flexibility of the nucleosomal DNA. In addition to the kinked regions previously identified in the x-ray structure of the nucleosome, the simulations support the existence of a biochemically identified distorted region of the DNA.