3 research outputs found
Unified Description of Urea Denaturation: Backbone and Side Chains Contribute Equally in the Transfer Model
After studying protein denaturation
by urea for many decades, conflicting
views of the role of the side chains and the backbone have emerged;
many results suggest that urea denatures by enhancing the solubility
of both the side chains and the backbone, but the frequently applied
transfer model (TM) so far ascribes denaturation exclusively to ureaās
action on the backbone. We use molecular dynamics simulations to rigorously
test one of the TMās key assumptions, the proportionality of
a moleculeās transfer free energy (TFE) and its solvent-accessible
surface. The performance of the TM as it is usually implemented turns
out to be unsatisfactory, but the proportionality is satisfied very
well after an inconsistency in the treatment of the backbone contribution
is corrected. This inconsistency has so far gone unnoticed as it was
obscured by a compensating error in the side-chain group TFEs used
so far. The revised āuniversal backboneā TM presented
in this work shows excellent accuracy in the prediction of experimental <i>m</i> values of a set of 36 proteins. It also settles the conflicting
views regarding the role of the side chains because it predicts that
both the side chains and the backbone on average contribute favorably
to denaturation by urea
Nuclear Inelastic Scattering and MoĢssbauer Spectroscopy as Local Probes for Ligand Binding Modes and Electronic Properties in Proteins: Vibrational Behavior of a Ferriheme Center inside a Ī²-Barrel Protein
In this work, we present a study of the influence of
the protein matrix on its ability to tune the binding of small ligands
such as NO, cyanide (CN<sup>ā</sup>), and histamine to the
ferric heme iron center in the NO-storage and -transport protein Nitrophorin
2 (NP2) from the salivary glands of the blood-sucking insect <i>Rhodnius prolixus</i>. Conventional MoĢssbauer spectroscopy
shows a diamagnetic ground state of the NP2āNO complex and
Type I and II electronic ground states of the NP2āCN<sup>ā</sup> and NP2āhistamine complex, respectively. The change in the
vibrational signature of the protein upon ligand binding has been
monitored by Nuclear Inelastic Scattering (NIS), also called Nuclear
Resonant Vibrational Spectroscopy (NRVS). The NIS data thus obtained
have also been calculated by quantum mechanical (QM) density functional
theory (DFT) coupled with molecular mechanics (MM) methods. The calculations
presented here show that the heme ruffling in NP2 is a consequence
of the interaction with the protein matrix. Structure optimizations
of the heme and its ligands with DFT retain the characteristic saddling
and ruffling only if the protein matrix is taken into account. Furthermore,
simulations of the NIS data by QM/MM calculations suggest that the
pH dependence of the binding of NO, but not of CN<sup>ā</sup> and histamine, might be a consequence of the protonation state of
the heme carboxyls
Nuclear Inelastic Scattering and MoĢssbauer Spectroscopy as Local Probes for Ligand Binding Modes and Electronic Properties in Proteins: Vibrational Behavior of a Ferriheme Center inside a Ī²-Barrel Protein
In this work, we present a study of the influence of
the protein matrix on its ability to tune the binding of small ligands
such as NO, cyanide (CN<sup>ā</sup>), and histamine to the
ferric heme iron center in the NO-storage and -transport protein Nitrophorin
2 (NP2) from the salivary glands of the blood-sucking insect <i>Rhodnius prolixus</i>. Conventional MoĢssbauer spectroscopy
shows a diamagnetic ground state of the NP2āNO complex and
Type I and II electronic ground states of the NP2āCN<sup>ā</sup> and NP2āhistamine complex, respectively. The change in the
vibrational signature of the protein upon ligand binding has been
monitored by Nuclear Inelastic Scattering (NIS), also called Nuclear
Resonant Vibrational Spectroscopy (NRVS). The NIS data thus obtained
have also been calculated by quantum mechanical (QM) density functional
theory (DFT) coupled with molecular mechanics (MM) methods. The calculations
presented here show that the heme ruffling in NP2 is a consequence
of the interaction with the protein matrix. Structure optimizations
of the heme and its ligands with DFT retain the characteristic saddling
and ruffling only if the protein matrix is taken into account. Furthermore,
simulations of the NIS data by QM/MM calculations suggest that the
pH dependence of the binding of NO, but not of CN<sup>ā</sup> and histamine, might be a consequence of the protonation state of
the heme carboxyls