Amyloid diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and the prion conditions, are each associated with a particular protein in fibrillar form. These amyloid fibrils were long suspected to be the disease agents, but evidence suggests that smaller, often transient and polymorphic oligomers are the toxic entities. Here we identify a segment of the amyloid-forming protein, alphaB crystallin, which forms an oligomeric complex exhibiting properties of other amyloid oligomers: beta-sheet-rich structure, cytotoxicity, and recognition by an anti-oligomer antibody. The X-ray-derived atomic structure of the oligomer reveals a cylindrical barrel, formed from six anti-parallel, protein strands, which we term a cylindrin. The cylindrin structure is compatible with a sequence segment from the Abeta protein of Alzheimer's disease. Cylindrins offer models for the hitherto elusive structures of amyloid oligomers.

The Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium (GOC, http://www.geneontology.org) is a community-based bioinformatics resource that classifies gene product function through the use of structured, controlled vocabularies. Over the past year, the GOC has implemented several processes to increase the quantity, quality and specificity of GO annotations. First, the number of manual, literature-based annotations has grown at an increasing rate. Second, as a result of a new ‘phylogenetic annotation’ process, manually reviewed, homology-based annotations are becoming available for a broad range of species. Third, the quality of GO annotations has been improved through a streamlined process for, and automated quality checks of, GO annotations deposited by different annotation groups. Fourth, the consistency and correctness of the ontology itself has increased by using automated reasoning tools. Finally, the GO has been expanded not only to cover new areas of biology through focused interaction with experts, but also to capture greater specificity in all areas of the ontology using tools for adding new combinatorial terms. The GOC works closely with other ontology developers to support integrated use of terminologies. The GOC supports its user community through the use of e-mail lists, social media and web-based resources.

Molecular ordering and charge transport have been studied computationally for 22 conjugated oligomers fabricated as crystal or thin-film semiconductors. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are employed to equilibrate crystal morphologies at 300 K. The paracrystalline order parameter, g, is calculated to characterize structural order in the materials. Charge-transport dynamics are predicted using kinetic Monte Carlo methods based on a charge-hopping mechanism described by the Marcus theory of electron transfer to calculate charge-transfer rates using the VOTCA package. We introduce an error function to assess the reliability of our computed values to reproduce experimental hole mobilities in both crystalline and thin-film morphologies of the 22 conjugated oligomers. For each of the oligomers, we compute hole mobility with three different theoretical models incorporating increasing measures of disorder: (1) a perfect crystal, based on the experimentally derived crystal structure, with no disorder, (2) an MD-equilibrated structure incorporating thermal disorder into the crystal structure, and (3) model 2 above but also incorporating energetic disorder arising from variations in site energies. For the series of known crystals with long-range order, we find that the perfect crystal model produces hole mobilities giving the best fit to experimental data. For the series of thin-film morphologies with short-range order, we observe that the presence of both thermal and energetic disorder is essential for accurate calculation. We also discuss the interplay between hole mobility and other charge-transport parameters in these morphologies, such as reorganization energy and energetic disorder.

Mutants of Lactobacillus kefir short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase, used here as ketoreductases (KREDs), enantioselectively reduce the pharmaceutically relevant substrates 3-thiacyclopentanone and 3-oxacyclopentanone. These substrates differ by only the heteroatom (S or O) in the ring, but the KRED mutants reduce them with different enantioselectivities. Kinetic studies show that these enzymes are more efficient with 3-thiacyclopentanone than with 3-oxacyclopentanone. X-ray crystal structures of apo-and NADP + -bound selected mutants show that the substrate-binding loop conformational preferences are modified by these mutations. Quantum mechanical calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to investigate the mechanism of reduction by the enzyme. We have developed an MD-based method for studying the diastereomeric transition state complexes and rationalize different enantiomeric ratios. This method, which probes the stability of the catalytic arrangement within the theozyme, shows a correlation between the relative fractions of catalytically competent poses for the enantiomeric reductions and the experimental enantiomeric ratio. Some mutations, such as A94F and Y190F, induce conformational changes in the active site that enlarge the small binding pocket, facilitating accommodation of the larger S atom in this region and enhancing S-selectivity with 3-thiacyclopentanone. In contrast, in the E145S mutant and the final variant evolved for large-scale production of the intermediate for the antibiotic sulopenem, R-selectivity is promoted by shrinking the small binding pocket, thereby destabilizing the pro-S orientation. directed evolution | crystallographic structures | molecular dynamics | theozyme | enantioselectivity B iocatalysis is a common method of stereoselective ketone reduction (1). This approach often replaces multistep syntheses and uses renewable, biodegradable, and nontoxic reagents and mild conditions (2). Ketoreductases (KREDs), the most commonly used enzymes in industrial pharmaceutical synthesis (3), reduce a wide range of ketones to alcohols with high chemoselectivity and stereoselectivity. These enzymes have been engineered to synthesize alcohols as intermediates for the production of atorvastatin (Lipitor), montelukast (Singulair), and atazanavir (Reyetaz) (4).Small and almost symmetrical ketones, such as prochiral cyclopentanones, are attractive substrates that are difficult to reduce asymmetrically by chemical methods (5, 6). In particular, the enantiopure chiral alcohols derived from 3-oxacyclopentanone (1) and 3-thiacyclopentanone (2) are used in the synthesis of the pharmaceutical agents fosamprenavir and sulopenem, respectively (Fig. 1). Through a directed evolution (DE) program, Codexis, Inc. engineered a KRED obtained from Lactobacillus kefir for the reduction of 3-thiacyclopentanone (2) for the large-scale production of the antibiotic sulopenem. L. kefir KRED (WT) belongs to the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) family (7,8). Via DE, a variant containing 10 mutati...

At the core of amyloid fibrils is the cross-β spine, a long tape of β-sheets formed by the constituent proteins. Recent high-resolution x-ray studies show that the unit of this filamentous structure is a β-sheet bilayer with side chains within the bilayer forming a tightly interdigitating “steric zipper” interface. However, for a given peptide, different bilayer patterns are possible, and no quantitative explanation exists regarding which pattern is selected or under what condition there can be more than one pattern observed, exhibiting molecular polymorphism. We address the structural selection mechanism by performing molecular dynamics simulations to calculate the free energy of incorporating a peptide monomer into a β-sheet bilayer. We test filaments formed by several types of peptides including GNNQQNY, NNQQ, VEALYL, KLVFFAE and STVIIE, and find that the patterns with the lowest binding free energy correspond to available atomistic structures with high accuracy. Molecular polymorphism, as exhibited by NNQQ, is likely because there are more than one most stable structures whose binding free energies differ by less than the thermal energy. Detailed analysis of individual energy terms reveals that these short peptides are not strained nor do they lose much conformational entropy upon incorporating into a β-sheet bilayer. The selection of a bilayer pattern is determined mainly by the van der Waals and hydrophobic forces as a quantitative measure of shape complementarity among side chains between the β-sheets. The requirement for self-complementary steric zipper formation supports that amyloid fibrils form more easily among similar or same sequences, and it also makes parallel β-sheets generally preferred over anti-parallel ones. But the presence of charged side chains appears to kinetically drive anti-parallel β-sheets to form at early stages of assembly, after which the bilayer formation is likely driven by energetics.

SpnF is the first monofunctional Diels-Alder/[6+4]-ase that catalyzes a reaction leading to both Diels-Alder and [6+4] adducts through a single transition state. The environment-perturbed transition-state sampling method has been developed to calculate free energies, kinetic isotope effects, and quasi-classical reaction trajectories of enzyme-catalyzed reactions and the uncatalyzed reaction in water. Energetics calculated in this way reproduce the experiment and show that the normal Diels-Alder transition state is stabilized by H bonds with water molecules, while the ambimodal transition state is favored in the enzyme SpnF by both intramolecular hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic binding. Molecular dynamics simulations show that trajectories passing through the ambimodal transition state bifurcate to the [6+4] adduct and the Diels-Alder adduct with a ratio of 1:1 in the gas phase, 1:1.6 in water, and 1:11 in the enzyme. This example shows how an enzyme acts on a vibrational time scale to steer post-transition state trajectories toward the Diels-Alder adduct.

We investigated the supramolecular structure and continuum mechanical properties of a beta-sheet nanofiber comprised of a self-assembling peptide ac-[RARADADA]2-am using computer simulations. The supramolecular structure was determined by constructing candidate filaments with dimensions compatible with those observed in atomic force microscopy and selecting the most stable ones after running molecular dynamics simulations on each of them. Four structures with different backbone hydrogen-bonding patterns were identified to be similarly stable. We then quantified the continuum mechanical properties of these identified structures by running three independent simulations: thermal motion analysis, normal mode analysis, and steered molecular dynamics. Within the range of deformations investigated, the filament showed linear elasticity in transverse directions with an estimated persistence length of 1.2-4.8 microm. Although side-chain interactions govern the propensity and energetics of filament self-assembly, we found that backbone hydrogen-bonding interactions are the primary determinant of filament elasticity, as demonstrated by its effective thickness, which is smaller than that estimated by atomic force microscopy or from the molecular geometry, as well as by the similar bending stiffness of a model filament without charged side chains. The generality of our approach suggests that it should be applicable to developing continuum elastic ribbon models of other beta-sheet filaments and amyloid fibrils.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors interrupt EGFR-dependent cellular signaling pathways that lead to accelerated tumor growth and proliferation. Mutation of a threonine in the inhibitor binding pocket, known as the "gatekeeper", to methionine (T790M) confers acquired resistance to several EGFR-selective inhibitors. We studied interactions between EGFR inhibitors and the gatekeeper residues of the target protein. Thermodynamic integration (TI) with Amber14 indicates that the binding energies of gefitinib and AEE788 to the active state of the T790M mutant EGFR is 3 kcal/mol higher than to the wild type (WT), whereas ATP binding energy to the mutant is similar to the WT. Using metadynamics MD simulations with NAMD v2.9, the conformational equilibrium between the inactive resting state and the catalytically competent activate state was determined for the WT EGFR. When combined with the results obtained by Sutto and Gervasio, our simulations showed that the T790M point mutation lowers the free energy of the active state by 5 kcal/mol relative to the inactive state of the enzyme. Relative to the WT, the T790M mutant binds gefitinib more strongly. The T790M mutation is nevertheless resistant due to its increased binding of ATP. By contrast, the binding of AEE788 to the active state causes a conformational change in the αC-helix adjacent to the inhibitor binding pocket, that results in a 2 kcal/mol energy penalty. The energy penalty explains why the binding of AEE788 to the T790M mutant is unfavorable relative to binding to WT EGFR. These results establish the role of the gatekeeper mutation on inhibitor selectivity. Additional molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, TI, and metadynamics MD simulations reveal the origins of the changes in binding energy of WT and mutants.