scholarly journals Corrections to “Do Molecular Dynamics Force Fields Capture Conformational Dynamics of Alanine in Water?”

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 5982-5982
Author(s):  
Shuting Zhang ◽  
Reinhard Schweitzer-Stenner ◽  
Brigita Urbanc
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
Conformational Dynamics

Do Molecular Dynamics Force Fields Capture Conformational Dynamics of Alanine in Water?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 510-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuting Zhang ◽  
Reinhard Schweitzer-Stenner ◽  
Brigita Urbanc
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
Conformational Dynamics

Constant pH Molecular Dynamics Reveals How Proton Release Drives the Conformational Transition of a Transmembrane Efflux Pump

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Shen ◽  
Zhi Yue ◽  
Helen Zgurskaya ◽  
Wei Chen
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Transmembrane Domain ◽  
Conformational Transition ◽  
Conformational Dynamics ◽  
Proton Release ◽  
Intrinsic Resistance ◽  
Constant Ph ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Constant Ph Molecular Dynamics

AcrB is the inner-membrane transporter of E. coli AcrAB-TolC tripartite efflux complex, which plays a major role in the intrinsic resistance to clinically important antibiotics. AcrB pumps a wide range of toxic substrates by utilizing the proton gradient between periplasm and cytoplasm. Crystal structures of AcrB revealed three distinct conformational states of the transport cycle, substrate access, binding and extrusion, or loose (L), tight (T) and open (O) states. However, the specific residue(s) responsible for proton binding/release and the mechanism of proton-coupled conformational cycling remain controversial. Here we use the newly developed membrane hybrid-solvent continuous constant pH molecular dynamics technique to explore the protonation states and conformational dynamics of the transmembrane domain of AcrB. Simulations show that both Asp407 and Asp408 are deprotonated in the L/T states, while only Asp408 is protonated in the O state. Remarkably, release of a proton from Asp408 in the O state results in large conformational changes, such as the lateral and vertical movement of transmembrane helices as well as the salt-bridge formation between Asp408 and Lys940 and other sidechain rearrangements among essential residues.Consistent with the crystallographic differences between the O and L protomers, simulations offer dynamic details of how proton release drives the O-to-L transition in AcrB and address the controversy regarding the proton/drug stoichiometry. This work offers a significant step towards characterizing the complete cycle of proton-coupled drug transport in AcrB and further validates the membrane hybrid-solvent CpHMD technique for studies of proton-coupled transmembrane proteins which are currently poorly understood. <p><br></p>

Molecular Basis of Glucose Transport Mechanism in Plants

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balaji Selvam ◽  
Ya-Chi Yu ◽  
Liqing Chen ◽  
Diwakar Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Free Energy ◽  
Molecular Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Transport Mechanism ◽  
Conformational Dynamics ◽  
Site Directed Mutagenesis ◽  
Free Energy Barrier ◽  
Transport Cycle ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

<p>The SWEET family belongs to a class of transporters in plants that undergoes large conformational changes to facilitate transport of sugar molecules across the cell membrane. However, the structures of their functionally relevant conformational states in the transport cycle have not been reported. In this study, we have characterized the conformational dynamics and complete transport cycle of glucose in OsSWEET2b transporter using extensive molecular dynamics simulations. Using Markov state models, we estimated the free energy barrier associated with different states as well as 1 for the glucose the transport mechanism. SWEETs undergoes structural transition to outward-facing (OF), Occluded (OC) and inward-facing (IF) and strongly support alternate access transport mechanism. The glucose diffuses freely from outside to inside the cell without causing major conformational changes which means that the conformations of glucose unbound and bound snapshots are exactly same for OF, OC and IF states. We identified a network of hydrophobic core residues at the center of the transporter that restricts the glucose entry to the cytoplasmic side and act as an intracellular hydrophobic gate. The mechanistic predictions from molecular dynamics simulations are validated using site-directed mutagenesis experiments. Our simulation also revealed hourglass like intermediate states making the pore radius narrower at the center. This work provides new fundamental insights into how substrate-transporter interactions actively change the free energy landscape of the transport cycle to facilitate enhanced transport activity.</p>

Schistosomal Sulfotransferase Interaction with Oxamniquine Involves Hybrid Mechanism of Induced-fit and Conformational Selection

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fortunatus C. Ezebuo ◽  
Ikemefuna C. Uzochukwu
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Binding Energy ◽  
Binding Site ◽  
Conformational Dynamics ◽  
Side Chain ◽  
Amino Acid Residues ◽  
Conformational Selection ◽  
Hybrid Mechanism ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

Background: Sulfotransferase family comprises key enzymes involved in drug metabolism. Oxamniquine is a pro-drug converted into its active form by schistosomal sulfotransferase. The conformational dynamics of side-chain amino acid residues at the binding site of schistosomal sulfotransferase towards activation of oxamniquine has not received attention. Objective: The study investigated the conformational dynamics of binding site residues in free and oxamniquine bound schistosomal sulfotransferase systems and their contribution to the mechanism of oxamniquine activation by schistosomal sulfotransferase using molecular dynamics simulations and binding energy calculations. Methods: Schistosomal sulfotransferase was obtained from Protein Data Bank and both the free and oxamniquine bound forms were subjected to molecular dynamics simulations using GROMACS-4.5.5 after modeling it’s missing amino acid residues with SWISS-MODEL. Amino acid residues at its binding site for oxamniquine was determined and used for Principal Component Analysis and calculations of side-chain dihedrals. In addition, binding energy of the oxamniquine bound system was calculated using g_MMPBSA. Results: The results showed that binding site amino acid residues in free and oxamniquine bound sulfotransferase sampled different conformational space involving several rotameric states. Importantly, Phe45, Ile145 and Leu241 generated newly induced conformations, whereas Phe41 exhibited shift in equilibrium of its conformational distribution. In addition, the result showed binding energy of -130.091 ± 8.800 KJ/mol and Phe45 contributed -9.8576 KJ/mol. Conclusion: The results showed that schistosomal sulfotransferase binds oxamniquine by relying on hybrid mechanism of induced fit and conformational selection models. The findings offer new insight into sulfotransferase engineering and design of new drugs that target sulfotransferase.

scholarly journals High-resolution mining of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease conformational space: supercomputer-driven unsupervised adaptive sampling

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Théo Jaffrelot Inizan ◽  
Frédéric Célerse ◽  
Olivier Adjoua ◽  
Dina El Ahdab ◽  
Luc-Henri Jolly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Adaptive Sampling ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Md Simulations ◽  
Conformational Space ◽  
Many Body ◽  
Polarizable Force Fields ◽  
Main Protease

We provide an unsupervised adaptive sampling strategy capable of producing μs-timescale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of large biosystems using many-body polarizable force fields (PFFs).

Molecular Origins of the Unique Conformational Properties of the Polysilanes: A Molecular Dynamics Study of Poly(Di-N-Hexylsilane)

1992 ◽  
Vol 278 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Welsh ◽  
Samuel H. Tersigni ◽  
Wangkan Lin
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Torsion Angle ◽  
Model Compound ◽  
Energy Surface ◽  
Conformational Dynamics ◽  
Conformational Transitions ◽  
Torsion Angles ◽  
Global Energy Minimum ◽  
Conformational Properties ◽  
Backbone Torsion Angle

AbstractThe conformational dynamics of a model compound for poly(di-n-hexylsilane) (PDHS) has been explored using the new molecular dynamics program MM3-MD. MM3-MD trajectories at variable temperatures reveal two abrupt conformational transitions, one near -182°C and another near -175°C, associated with two energy barriers on the potential-energy surface. The first transition near -182°C allows shifts in the backbone torsion angle from that defined by the global energy minimum designated off-trans to that corresponding to a statistical collection of torsion angles within the range trans ±30°. The second transition near -175°C allows the backbone torsion angle to explore the remainder of its torsional space. The sidechain dynamics follows a similar pattern. We suggest that the abrupt transition calculated here at -182°C for “gas.phase” PDHS corresponds to that observed for PDHS at -28°C in solution and at 42°C in the solid state.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document