Computational investigation for modeling the protein-protein interaction of TasA-TapA: a decisive process in biofilm formation by Bacillus subtilis.

Biofilms have a significant role in microbial persistence, antibiotic resistance, and chronic infections; consequently, there is a pressing need for development of novel "anti-biofilm strategies." One of the fundamental mechanisms involved in biofilm formation is protein-protein interactions of "amyloid-like proteins" (ALPs) in the extracellular matrix. Such interactions could be potential targets for development of novel anti-biofilm strategies; therefore, assessing the structural features of these interactions could be of great scientific value. Characterization of structural features the of protein-protein interaction with conventional structure biology tools including X-ray diffraction and nuclear magnetic resonance is technically challenging, expensive, and time-consuming. In contrast, modeling such interactions is time-efficient and economical, and might provide deeper understanding of structural basis of interactions. Although it is often acknowledged that molecular modeling methods have varying accuracy, their careful implementation with supplementary verification methods can provide valuable insight and directions for future studies. With this reasoning, during the present study, the protein-protein interaction of TasA-TapA (which is a decisive process for biofilm formation by Bacillus subtilis) was modeled using in silico approaches, viz., molecular modeling, protein-protein docking, and molecular dynamics simulations. Results obtained here identified amino acid residues present within intrinsically disordered regions of both proteins to be critical for interaction. These results were further supported with principal component analyses (PCA) and free energy landscape (FEL) analyses. Results presented here represent novel finding, and we hypothesize that amino acid residues identified during the present study could be targeted for inhibition of biofilm formation by B. subtilis.