A new 1.2 Å crystal structure of vanadium nitrogenase, isolated under turnover conditions, recently revealed a light atom ligand (OH or NH) replacing the bridging S2B sulfide of the FeV cofactor. QM/MM calculations on the new structure now reveal the light-atom ligand to be a bridging hydroxo group, probably derived from water binding to the cofactor.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c8cc03793k | DOI Listing |
Protein Sci
January 2025
Departament de Química, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) plays a crucial role in inflammation and has been implicated in cancer development. Understanding the behavior of COX-2 in different cellular contexts is essential for developing targeted therapeutic strategies. In this study, we investigate the fluorescence spectrum of a fluorogenic probe, NANQ-IMC6, when bound to the active site of human COX-2 in both its monomeric and homodimeric forms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Phys Chem B
December 2024
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive West, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada T1K 3M4.
Despite the remarkable resistance of the nucleic acid phosphodiester backbone to degradation affording genetic stability, the P-O bond must be broken during DNA repair and RNA metabolism, among many other critical cellular processes. Nucleases are powerful enzymes that can enhance the uncatalyzed rate of phosphodiester bond cleavage by up to ∼10-fold. Despite the most well accepted hydrolysis mechanism involving two metals (M to activate a water nucleophile and M to stabilize the leaving group), experimental evidence suggests that some nucleases can use a single metal to facilitate the chemical step, a controversial concept in the literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Comput Chem
January 2025
Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
We present a polarizable embedding quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) framework for ground- and excited-state Complete Active Space Self-Consistent Field (CASSCF) calculations on molecules within complex environments, such as biological systems. These environments are modeled using the AMOEBA polarizable force field. This approach is implemented by integrating the OpenMMPol library with the CFour quantum chemistry software suite.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochemistry
December 2024
Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Photochemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Large Stokes shift red fluorescent proteins (LSS-RFPs) are of growing interest for multicolor bioimaging applications. However, their photochemical mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, we employed the QM(XDW-CASPT2//CASSCF)/MM method to investigate the excited-state proton transfer and photoisomerization processes of the LSS-RFP mKeima starting from its cis neutral isomer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Chem Theory Comput
December 2024
Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, ICR, 13397 Marseille, France.
Electronic polarization and dispersion are decisive actors in determining interaction energies between molecules. These interactions have a particularly profound effect on excitation energies of molecules in complex environments, especially when the excitation involves a significant degree of charge reorganization. The direct reaction field (DRF) approach, which has seen a recent revival of interest, provides a powerful framework for describing these interactions in quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) models of systems, where a small subsystem of interest is described using quantum chemical methods and the remainder is treated with a simple MM force field.
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