SE(3)-Equivariant Energy-based Models for End-to-End Protein Folding

Accurate prediction of protein structures is critical for understanding the biological function of proteins. Nevertheless, most structure optimization methods are built upon pre-defined statistical energy functions, which may be sub-optimal in formulating the conformation space. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end approach for protein structure optimization, powered by SE(3)-equivariant energy-based models. The conformation space is characterized by a SE(3)-equivariant graph neural network, with substantial modifications to embed the protein-specific domain knowledge. Furthermore, we introduce continuously-annealed Langevin dynamics as a novel sampling algorithm, and demonstrate that such process converges to native protein structures with theoretical guarantees. Extensive experiments indicate that SE(3)-Fold achieves comparable structure optimization accuracy, compared against state-of-the-art baselines, with over 1-2 orders of magnitude speed-up.

Alanine scanning of dinitroaniline/phosphorothioamidate site of α-tubulin in plasmodium species distributed in India

Aim. Identification of amino acid residues participating in specific binding of dinitroaniline and phosphorothioamidate compounds with α-tubulin in Plasmodium falciparum. Methods. Protein structure modelling, protein structure optimization using molecular dynamics method, ligand-protein docking, alanine scanning mutagenesis. Results. Molecular docking of canonical compounds and alanine scanning mutagenesis, indicate two key (Arg2, Val250) and one minor (Glu3) residues involved in binding of both - dinitroaniline and phosphorothioamidate compounds. At the same time, it was revealed two minor residues (Asp251, Glu254) interacting only with some members of dinitroaniline grope. Conclusions. It was identified amino acid residues predetermining existence of joint site and similar interaction of α-tubulin with dinitroani-line and phosphorothioamidate compounds in P. falciparum. Keywords: malaria, Plasmodium, α-tubulin, molecular interaction, dinitroanilines compounds, phosphorothioamidate compounds, alanine scanning mutagenesis.