scholarly journals Predicting conformational entropy of bond vectors in proteins by networks of coupled rotators

2008 ◽  
Vol 129 (9) ◽  
pp. 095107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Dhulesia ◽  
Geoffrey Bodenhausen ◽  
Daniel Abergel
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucian Chan ◽  
Garrett Morris ◽  
Geoffrey Hutchison

The calculation of the entropy of flexible molecules can be challenging, since the number of possible conformers grows exponentially with molecule size and many low-energy conformers may be thermally accessible. Different methods have been proposed to approximate the contribution of conformational entropy to the molecular standard entropy, including performing thermochemistry calculations with all possible stable conformations, and developing empirical corrections from experimental data. We have performed conformer sampling on over 120,000 small molecules generating some 12 million conformers, to develop models to predict conformational entropy across a wide range of molecules. Using insight into the nature of conformational disorder, our cross-validated physically-motivated statistical model can outperform common machine learning and deep learning methods, with a mean absolute error ≈4.8 J/mol•K, or under 0.4 kcal/mol at 300 K. Beyond predicting molecular entropies and free energies, the model implies a high degree of correlation between torsions in most molecules, often as- sumed to be independent. While individual dihedral rotations may have low energetic barriers, the shape and chemical functionality of most molecules necessarily correlate their torsional degrees of freedom, and hence restrict the number of low-energy conformations immensely. Our simple models capture these correlations, and advance our understanding of small molecule conformational entropy.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Akke

Protein conformational dynamics can be critical for ligand binding in two ways that relate to kinetics and thermodynamics respectively. First, conformational transitions between different substates can control access to the binding site (kinetics). Secondly, differences between free and ligand-bound states in their conformational fluctuations contribute to the entropy of ligand binding (thermodynamics). In the present paper, I focus on the second topic, summarizing our recent results on the role of conformational entropy in ligand binding to Gal3C (the carbohydrate-recognition domain of galectin-3). NMR relaxation experiments provide a unique probe of conformational entropy by characterizing bond-vector fluctuations at atomic resolution. By monitoring differences between the free and ligand-bound states in their backbone and side chain order parameters, we have estimated the contributions from conformational entropy to the free energy of binding. Overall, the conformational entropy of Gal3C increases upon ligand binding, thereby contributing favourably to the binding affinity. Comparisons with the results from isothermal titration calorimetry indicate that the conformational entropy is comparable in magnitude to the enthalpy of binding. Furthermore, there are significant differences in the dynamic response to binding of different ligands, despite the fact that the protein structure is virtually identical in the different protein–ligand complexes. Thus both affinity and specificity of ligand binding to Gal3C appear to depend in part on subtle differences in the conformational fluctuations that reflect the complex interplay between structure, dynamics and ligand interactions.


Nature ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 488 (7410) ◽  
pp. 236-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiou-Ru Tzeng ◽  
Charalampos G. Kalodimos

1972 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 587-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiharu Tsujita ◽  
Takuhei Nose ◽  
Toshio Hata

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (45) ◽  
pp. 11525-11530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo E. Guerin ◽  
Guillaume Stirnemann ◽  
David Giganti

An immense repertoire of protein chemical modifications catalyzed by enzymes is available as proteomics data. Quantifying the impact of the conformational dynamics of the modified peptide remains challenging to understand the decisive kinetics and amino acid sequence specificity of these enzymatic reactions in vivo, because the target peptide must be disordered to accommodate the specific enzyme-binding site. Here, we were able to control the conformation of a single-molecule peptide chain by applying mechanical force to activate and monitor its specific cleavage by a model protease. We found that the conformational entropy impacts the reaction in two distinct ways. First, the flexibility and accessibility of the substrate peptide greatly increase upon mechanical unfolding. Second, the conformational sampling of the disordered peptide drives the specific recognition, revealing force-dependent reaction kinetics. These results support a mechanism of peptide recognition based on conformational selection from an ensemble that we were able to quantify with a torsional free-energy model. Our approach can be used to predict how entropy affects site-specific modifications of proteins and prompts conformational and mechanical selectivity.


Author(s):  
Matthew A. Stetz ◽  
José A. Caro ◽  
Sravya Kotaru ◽  
Xuejun Yao ◽  
Bryan S. Marques ◽  
...  

IUCrJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita Dimova ◽  
Yancho D. Devedjiev

Until recently, the occurrence of conformational entropy in protein crystal contacts was considered to be a very unlikely event. A study based on the most accurately refined protein structures demonstrated that side-chain conformational entropy and static disorder might be common in protein crystal lattices. The present investigation uses structures refined using ensemble refinement to show that although paradoxical, conformational entropy is likely to be the major factor in the emergence and integrity of the protein condensed phase. This study reveals that the role of shape entropy and local entropic forces expands beyond the onset of crystallization. For the first time, the complete pattern of intermolecular interactions by protein atoms in crystal lattices is presented, which shows that van der Waals interactions dominate in crystal formation.


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