No Arabic abstract
Mucin glycoprotein consist of tandem repeating glycosylated regions flanked by non-repetitive protein domains with little glycosylation. These non-repetitive domains are involved in the pH dependent gelation of gastric mucin, which is essential to protecting the stomach from autodigestion. We have examined the folding of the non-repetitive sequence of von Willebrand factor vWF-C1 domain (67 amino acids) and PGM 2X (242 amino acids) at neutral and low pH using Discrete Molecular Dynamics. A four-bead protein model with hydrogen bonding and amino acid-specific hydrophobic/hydrophilic and electrostatic interactions of side chains) was used. The simulations reveal that the distant N- and C-terminal regions form salt-bridges at neutral pH giving a relatively compact folded structure. At low pH, the salt bridges break giving a more open and extended structure. The calculated average value of the beta-strand increases from 0.23 at neutral pH to 0.36 at low pH in very good agreement with CD data. Simulations of vWF C1 show 4-6 beta strands separated by turns/loops and we found that pH did not affect significantly the folded structure. The average beta-strand structure of 0.32 was again in very good agreement with the CD results.
We consider the unwinding of two lattice polymer strands of length N that are initially wound around each other in a double-helical conformation and evolve through Rouse dynamics. The problem relates to quickly bringing a double-stranded polymer well above its melting temperature, i.e., the binding interactions between the strands are neglected, and the strands separate from each other as it is entropically favorable for them to do so. The strands unwind by rotating around each other until they separate. We find that the process proceeds from the ends inward; intermediate conformations can be characterized by a tightly wound inner part, from which loose strands are sticking out, with length l~t^0.39. The total time needed for the two strands to unwind scales as a power of N as tu~N^(2.57+-0.03). We present a theoretical argument, which suggests that during this unwinding process, these loose strands are far out of equilibrium.
In this paper we explore relevant electrical properties of two olfactory receptors (ORs), one from rat OR I7 and the other from human OR 17-40, which are of interest for the realization of smell nanobiosensors. The investigation compares existing experiments, coming from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, with the theoretical expectations obtained from an impedance network protein analogue, recently developed. The changes in the response due to the sensing action of the proteins are correlated with the conformational change undergone by the single protein. The satisfactory agreement between theory and experiments points to a promising development of a new class of nanobiosensors based on the electrical properties of sensing proteins.
The three dimensional structure of DNA in the nucleus (chromatin) plays an important role in many cellular processes. Recent experimental advances have led to high-throughput methods of capturing information about chromatin conformation on genome-wide scales. New models are needed to quantitatively interpret this data at a global scale. Here we introduce the use of tools from topological data analysis to study chromatin conformation. We use persistent homology to identify and characterize conserved loops and voids in contact map data and identify scales of interaction. We demonstrate the utility of the approach on simulated data and then look data from both a bacterial genome and a human cell line. We identify substantial multiscale topology in these datasets.
We present the first inelastic neutron scattering study of the short wavelength dynamics in a phospholipid bilayer. We show that inelastic neutron scattering using a triple-axis spectrometer at the high flux reactor of the ILL yields the necessary resolution and signal to determine the dynamics of model membranes. The results can quantitatively be compared to recent Molecular Dynamics simulations. Reflectivity, in-plane correlations and the corresponding dynamics can be measured simultaneously to gain a maximum amount of information. With this method, dispersion relations can be measured with a high energy resolution. Structure and dynamics in phospholipid bilayers, and the relation between them, can be studied on a molecular length scale.
We have studied the collective short wavelength dynamics in deuterated DMPC bilayers by inelastic neutron scattering. The corresponding dispersion relation $hbaromega$(Q) is presented for the gel and fluid phase of this model system. The temperature dependence of the inelastic excitations indicates a phase coexistence between the two phases over a broad range and leads to a different assignment of excitations than that reported in a preceding inelastic x-ray scattering study [Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 86}, 740 (2001)]. As a consequence, we find that the minimum in the dispersion relation is actually deeper in the gel than in the fluid phase. Finally, we can clearly identify an additional non-dispersive (optical) mode predicted by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations [Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 87}, 238101 (2001)].