scholarly journals Laser-based temperature control to study the roles of entropy and enthalpy in polymer-nanopore interactions

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (17) ◽  
pp. eabf5462
Author(s):  
Christopher E. Angevine ◽  
Joseph W.F. Robertson ◽  
Amala Dass ◽  
Joseph E. Reiner
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Polyethylene Glycol ◽  
Single Molecule ◽  
Electrostatic Interactions ◽  
Retention Mechanism ◽  
Water Soluble ◽  
Energy Profiles ◽  
Enthalpy And Entropy ◽  
Nanopore Sensors ◽  
Free Energy Profiles

Single-molecule approaches for probing the free energy of confinement for polymers in a nanopore environment are critical for the development of nanopore biosensors. We developed a laser-based nanopore heating approach to monitor the free energy profiles of such a single-molecule sensor. Using this approach, we measure the free energy profiles of two distinct polymers, polyethylene glycol and water-soluble peptides, as they interact with the nanopore sensor. Polyethylene glycol demonstrates a retention mechanism dominated by entropy with little sign of interaction with the pore, while peptides show an enthalpic mechanism, which can be attributed to physisorption to the nanopore (e.g., hydrogen bonding). To manipulate the energetics, we introduced thiolate-capped gold clusters [Au25(SG)18] into the pore, which increases the charge and leads to additional electrostatic interactions that help dissect the contribution that enthalpy and entropy make in this modified environment. These observations provide a benchmark for optimization of single-molecule nanopore sensors.

scholarly journals A Bayesian approach to extracting free-energy profiles from cryo-electron microscopy experiments

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Giraldo-Barreto ◽  
Sebastian Ortiz ◽  
Erik H. Thiede ◽  
Karen Palacio-Rodriguez ◽  
Bob Carpenter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Free Energy ◽  
Single Molecule ◽  
Single Particle ◽  
Particle Density ◽  
Bound State ◽  
Complete Characterization ◽  
Energy Profiles ◽  
Cryo Electron Microscopy ◽  
Free Energy Profiles

AbstractCryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) extracts single-particle density projections of individual biomolecules. Although cryo-EM is widely used for 3D reconstruction, due to its single-particle nature it has the potential to provide information about a biomolecule’s conformational variability and underlying free-energy landscape. However, treating cryo-EM as a single-molecule technique is challenging because of the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in individual particles. In this work, we propose the cryo-BIFE method (cryo-EM Bayesian Inference of Free-Energy profiles), which uses a path collective variable to extract free-energy profiles and their uncertainties from cryo-EM images. We test the framework on several synthetic systems where the imaging parameters and conditions were controlled. We found that for realistic cryo-EM environments and relevant biomolecular systems, it is possible to recover the underlying free energy, with the pose accuracy and SNR as crucial determinants. We then use the method to study the conformational transitions of a calcium-activated channel with real cryo-EM particles. Interestingly, we recover not only the most probable conformation (used to generate a high-resolution reconstruction of the calcium-bound state) but also a metastable state that corresponds to the calcium-unbound conformation. As expected for turnover transitions within the same sample, the activation barriers are on the order of $$k_BT$$ k B T . We expect our tool for extracting free-energy profiles from cryo-EM images to enable more complete characterization of the thermodynamic ensemble of biomolecules.

scholarly journals Particle Diffusivity and Free-Energy Profiles in Hydrogels from Time-Resolved Penetration Data

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanuel Wolde-Kidan ◽  
Anna Herrmann ◽  
Albert Prause ◽  
Michael Gradzielski ◽  
Rainer Haag ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Energy Profiles ◽  
Penetration Data ◽  
Free Energy Profiles

Free energy profile analysis to identify factors activating the aggregation-induced emission of a cyanostilbene derivative

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norifumi Yamamoto
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Energy Profile ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Free Energy Profile ◽  
Aggregation Induced Emission ◽  
Energy Profiles ◽  
Free Energy Profiles

The contributing factors that cause the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) are determined by identifying characteristic differences in the free energy profiles of the AIE processes of the AIE-active E-form of CN-MBE and the inactive Z-form.

scholarly journals Reconstructing the Free Energy Profiles Describing the Switching Mechanism of a pH-Dependent DNA Nanodevice from ABMD Simulations

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 4052
Author(s):  
Alice Romeo ◽  
Mattia Falconi ◽  
Alessandro Desideri ◽  
Federico Iacovelli
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Double Helix ◽  
Minimum Energy ◽  
Switching Mechanism ◽  
Linker Length ◽  
Energy Profiles ◽  
Functional Dna ◽  
Triplex Forming Oligonucleotide ◽  
Dynamics Simulations ◽  
Free Energy Profiles

The pH-responsive behavior of six triple-helix DNA nanoswitches, differing in the number of protonation centers (two or four) and in the length of the linker (5, 15 or 25 bases), connecting the double-helical region to the single-strand triplex-forming region, was characterized at the atomistic level through Adaptively Biased Molecular Dynamics simulations. The reconstruction of the free energy profiles of triplex-forming oligonucleotide unbinding from the double helix identified a different minimum energy path for the three diprotic nanoswitches, depending on the length of the connecting linker and leading to a different per-base unbinding profile. The same analyses carried out on the tetraprotic switches indicated that, in the presence of four protonation centers, the unbinding process occurs independently of the linker length. The simulation data provide an atomistic explanation for previously published experimental results showing, only in the diprotic switch, a two unit increase in the pKa switching mechanism decreasing the linker length from 25 to 5 bases, endorsing the validity of computational methods for the design and refinement of functional DNA nanodevices.

On the use of the adiabatic molecular dynamics technique in the calculation of free energy profiles

2002 ◽  
Vol 116 (11) ◽  
pp. 4389-4402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lula Rosso ◽  
Peter Mináry ◽  
Zhongwei Zhu ◽  
Mark E. Tuckerman
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Free Energy ◽  
Energy Profiles ◽  
Free Energy Profiles
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