Actin works within eukaryotic cells to facilitate a variety of cellular processes, which are driven by the assembly of G-actin (monomeric form) into F-actin (fibrous form), and the disassembly of F-actin into G-actin. F-actin adopts multiple conformations, which are specified by interactions with various actin-binding proteins. Knowledge of the multiple conformations of actin is the key for understanding its cellular functions. Recently, we published a refined model for F-actin. In this review, based on this model, we discuss the origin, mechanism, and possible physiological significance of the multiple conformations of F-actin.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2010.05.009 | DOI Listing |
Q Rev Biophys
January 2025
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biophysics and Neuroscience, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
The GABA type A receptor (GABAR) belongs to the family of pentameric ligand-gated ion channels and plays a key role in inhibition in adult mammalian brains. Dysfunction of this macromolecule may lead to epilepsy, anxiety disorders, autism, depression, and schizophrenia. GABAR is also a target for multiple physiologically and clinically relevant modulators, such as benzodiazepines (BDZs), general anesthetics, and neurosteroids.
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January 2025
Biophysics Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Understanding how proteins discriminate between preferred and non-preferred ligands ('selectivity') is essential for predicting biological function and a central goal of protein engineering efforts, yet the biophysical mechanisms underpinning selectivity remain poorly understood. Towards this end, we study how variants of the promiscuous transcription factor (TF) MAX (H. sapiens) alter DNA specificity and selectivity, yielding >1700 Ks and >500 rate constants in complex with multiple DNA sequences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlphaFold2 (AF2), a deep-learning based model that predicts protein structures from their amino acid sequences, has recently been used to predict multiple protein conformations. In some cases, AF2 has successfully predicted both dominant and alternative conformations of fold-switching proteins, which remodel their secondary and tertiary structures in response to cellular stimuli. Whether AF2 has learned enough protein folding principles to reliably predict alternative conformations outside of its training set is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChem Sci
December 2024
ByteDance Research Bellevue Washington 98004 USA
A force field is a critical component in molecular dynamics simulations for computational drug discovery. It must achieve high accuracy within the constraints of molecular mechanics' (MM) limited functional forms, which offers high computational efficiency. With the rapid expansion of synthetically accessible chemical space, traditional look-up table approaches face significant challenges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeliyon
January 2025
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Life Science Faculty, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, 8100, Bangladesh.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune and chronic disease in the brain and spinal cord. MS has inflammatory progression characterized by its hallmark inflammatory plaques. The histological and clinical characteristics of MS are shared by Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE).
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