Characterization of the Immersion Properties of the Peripheral Membrane Anchor of the FATC Domain of the Kinase “Target of Rapamycin” by NMR, Oriented CD Spectroscopy, and MD Simulations

2014 ◽  
Vol 118 (18) ◽  
pp. 4817-4831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A. M. Sommer ◽  
J. Joel Janke ◽  
W. F. Drew Bennett ◽  
Jochen Bürck ◽  
Anne S. Ulrich ◽  
...  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 546-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maristella De Cicco ◽  
Lech-G. Milroy ◽  
Sonja A. Dames

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (37) ◽  
pp. 25806-25816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Navarro-Retamal ◽  
Anne Bremer ◽  
Jans Alzate-Morales ◽  
Julio Caballero ◽  
Dirk K. Hincha ◽  
...  

Unfolding of intrinsically unstructured full-length LEA proteins in a differentially crowded environment can be modeled by 30 ns MD simulations in accordance with experimental data.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aujan Mehregan ◽  
Sergio Perez-Conesa ◽  
Yuxuan Zhuang ◽  
Ahmad Elbahnsi ◽  
Diletta Pasini ◽  
...  

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic which continues to wreak havoc across the world, over a year and a half after its effects were first reported in the general media. Current fundamental research efforts largely focus on the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. Since successful antiviral therapies are likely to target multiple viral components, there is considerable interest in understanding the biophysical role of its other proteins, in particular structural membrane proteins. Here, we have focused our efforts on the characterization of the full-length E protein from SARS-CoV-2, combining experimental and computational approaches. Recombinant expression of the full-length E protein from SARS-CoV-2 reveals that this membrane protein is capable of independent multimerization, possibly as a tetrameric or smaller species. Fluorescence microscopy shows that the protein localizes intracellularly, and coarse-grained MD simulations indicate it causes bending of the surrounding lipid bilayer, corroborating a potential role for the E protein in viral budding. Although we did not find robust electrophysiological evidence of ion-channel activity, cells transfected with the E protein exhibited reduced intracellular Ca2+, which may further promote viral replication. However, our atomistic MD simulations revealed that previous NMR structures are relatively unstable, and result in models incapable of ion conduction. Our study highlights the importance of using high-resolution structural data obtained from a full-length protein to gain detailed molecular insights, and eventually permitting virtual drug screening.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa V. Espinoza ◽  
Kersti Caddell Haatveit ◽  
S. Wald Grossman ◽  
Jin Yi Tan ◽  
Caylie A. McGlade ◽  
...  

<div> <div> <div> <p>Iterative P450 enzymes are powerful biocatalysts for selective late-stage C-H oxidation of complex natural product scaffolds. These enzymes represent new tools for selectivity and cascade reactions, facilitating direct access to core structure diversification. Recently, we reported the structure of the multifunctional bacterial P450 TamI and elucidated the molecular basis of its substrate binding and strict reaction sequence at distinct carbon atoms of the substrate. Here, we report the design and characterization of a toolbox of TamI biocatalysts, generated by mutations at Leu101, Leu244 and/or Leu295, that alter the native selectivity, step sequence and number of reactions catalyzed, including the engineering of a variant capable of catalyzing a four-step oxidative cascade without the assistance of the flavoprotein and oxidative partner TamL. The tuned enzymes override inherent substrate reactivity enabling catalyst- controlled C-H functionalization and alkene epoxidation of the tetramic acid-containing natural product tirandamycin. Five new, bioactive tirandamycin derivatives (6-10) were generated through TamI-mediated enzymatic synthesis. Quantum mechanics calculations and MD simulations provide important insights on the basis of altered selectivity and underlying biocatalytic mechanisms for enhanced continuous oxidation of the iterative P450 TamI. </p> </div> </div> </div>


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Orsolya Réka Molnár ◽  
András Végh ◽  
Judit Somkuti ◽  
László Smeller

AbstractSpecific guanine rich nucleic acid sequences can form non-canonical structures, like the four stranded G-quadruplex (GQ). We studied the GQ-forming sequence (named HepB) found in the genome of the hepatitis B virus. Fluorescence-, infrared- and CD-spectroscopy were used. HepB shows a hybrid form in presence of K+, but Na+, Li+, and Rb+ induce parallel structure. Higher concentrations of metal ions increase the unfolding temperature, which was explained by a short thermodynamic calculation. Temperature stability of the GQ structure was determined for all these ions. Na+ has stronger stabilizing effect on HepB than K+, which is highly unusual. The transition temperatures were 56.6, 53.8, 58.5 and 54.4 °C for Na+, K+, Li+, and Rb+ respectively. Binding constants for Na+ and K+ were 10.2 mM and 7.1 mM respectively. Study of three ligands designed in cancer research for GQ targeting (TMPyP4, BRACO19 and PhenDC3) showed unequivocally their binding to HepB. Binding was proven by the increased stability of the bound form. The stabilization was higher than 20 °C for TMPyP4 and PhenDC3, while it was considerably lower for BRACO19. These results might have medical importance in the fight against the hepatitis B virus.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (10) ◽  
pp. 4244-4249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert C. Pan ◽  
Daniel Jacobson ◽  
Konstantin Yatsenko ◽  
Duluxan Sritharan ◽  
Thomas M. Weinreich ◽  
...  

Despite the biological importance of protein–protein complexes, determining their structures and association mechanisms remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we report the results of atomic-level simulations in which we observed five protein–protein pairs repeatedly associate to, and dissociate from, their experimentally determined native complexes using a molecular dynamics (MD)–based sampling approach that does not make use of any prior structural information about the complexes. To study association mechanisms, we performed additional, conventional MD simulations, in which we observed numerous spontaneous association events. A shared feature of native association for these five structurally and functionally diverse protein systems was that if the proteins made contact far from the native interface, the native state was reached by dissociation and eventual reassociation near the native interface, rather than by extensive interfacial exploration while the proteins remained in contact. At the transition state (the conformational ensemble from which association to the native complex and dissociation are equally likely), the protein–protein interfaces were still highly hydrated, and no more than 20% of native contacts had formed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Laursen ◽  
Hiu Yue Monatrice Lam ◽  
Kasper Kildegaard Sørensen ◽  
Pengfei Tian ◽  
Cecilie Cetti Hansen ◽  
...  

AbstractPlant metabolism depends on cascade reactions mediated by dynamic enzyme assemblies known as metabolons. In this context, the cytochrome P450 (P450) superfamily catalyze key reactions underpinning the unique diversity of bioactive compounds. In contrast to their soluble bacterial counterparts, eukaryotic P450s are anchored to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane and serve as metabolon nucleation sites. Hence, membrane anchoring appears to play a pivotal role in the evolution of complex biosynthetic pathways. Here, a model membrane assay enabled characterization of membrane anchor dynamics by single molecule microscopy. As a model system, we reconstituted the membrane anchor of cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR), the ubiquitous electron donor to all microsomal P450s. The transmembrane segment in the membrane anchor of POR is relatively conserved, corroborating its functional importance. We observe dynamic colocalization of the POR anchors in our assay suggesting that membrane anchoring might promote intermolecular interactions and in this way impact assembly of metabolic multienzyme complexes.


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