Heavy water or deuterium oxide, D 2 O, is used as solvent in various biophysical and chemical experiments. To model such experiments with molecular dynamics simulations, effective pair potentials for heavy water are required that reproduce the well-known physicochemical differences relative to light water. We present three effective pair potentials for heavy water, denoted SPC/E-HW, TIP3P-HW, and TIP4P/2005-HW. The models were parametrized by modifying widely used three-and four-site models for light water, with aim of maintaining the specific characteristics of the light water models. At room temperature, the SPC/E-HW and TIP3P-HW capture the modulations relative to light water of the mass and electron densities, heat of vaporization, diffusion coefficient, and water structure. TIP4P/2005-HW captures in addition the density of heavy water over a wide temperature range.File list (2) download file view on ChemRxiv Linse2021.pdf (213.28 KiB) download file view on ChemRxiv heavyWaterGromacsFiles.tar.gz (181.67 KiB)

Serial crystallography is a rapidly growing method that can yield structural insights from microcrystals that were previously considered to be too small to be useful in conventional X-ray crystallography. Here, conditions for growing microcrystals of the photosynthetic reaction centre of Blastochloris viridis within a lipidic cubic phase (LCP) crystallization matrix that employ a seeding protocol utilizing detergent-grown crystals with a different crystal packing are described. LCP microcrystals diffracted to 2.25 Å resolution when exposed to XFEL radiation, which is an improvement of 0.15 Å over previous microcrystal forms. Ubiquinone was incorporated into the LCP crystallization media and the resulting electron density within the mobile QB pocket is comparable to that of other cofactors within the structure. As such, LCP microcrystallization conditions will facilitate time-resolved diffraction studies of electron-transfer reactions to the mobile quinone, potentially allowing the observation of structural changes associated with the two electron-transfer reactions leading to complete reduction of the ubiquinone ligand.

A key regulatory process during Drosophila development is the localized suppression of the hunchback mRNA translation at the posterior, which gives rise to a hunchback gradient governing the formation of the anterior-posterior body axis. This suppression is achieved by a concerted action of Brain Tumour (Brat), Pumilio (Pum) and Nanos. Each protein is necessary for proper Drosophila development. The RNA contacts have been elucidated for the proteins individually in several atomic-resolution structures. However, the interplay of all three proteins during RNA suppression remains a long-standing open question. Here, we characterize the quaternary complex of the RNA-binding domains of Brat, Pum and Nanos with hunchback mRNA by combining NMR spectroscopy, SANS/SAXS, XL/MS with MD simulations and ITC assays. The quaternary hunchback mRNA suppression complex comprising the RNA binding domains is flexible with unoccupied nucleotides functioning as a flexible linker between the Brat and Pum-Nanos moieties of the complex. Moreover, the presence of the Pum-HD/Nanos-ZnF complex has no effect on the equilibrium RNA binding affinity of the Brat RNA binding domain. This is in accordance with previous studies, which showed that Brat can suppress mRNA independently and is distributed uniformly throughout the embryo.

RNA binding proteins (RBPs) often engage multiple RNA binding domains (RBDs) to increase target specificity and affinity. However, the complexity of target recognition of multiple RBDs remains largely unexplored. Here we use Upstream of N-Ras (Unr), a multidomain RBP, to demonstrate how multiple RBDs orchestrate target specificity. A crystal structure of the three C-terminal RNA binding cold-shock domains (CSD) of Unr bound to a poly(A) sequence exemplifies how recognition goes beyond the classical ππ-stacking in CSDs. Further structural studies reveal several interaction surfaces between the N-terminal and C-terminal part of Unr with the poly(A)-binding protein (pAbp). All interactions are validated by mutational analyses and the high-resolution structures presented here will guide further studies to understand how both proteins act together in cellular processes.

Heavy water or deuterium oxide, D₂O, is used as solvent in various biophysical and chemical experiments. To model such experiments with molecular dynamics simulations, effective pair potentials for heavy water are required that reproduce the well-known physicochemical differences relative to light water. We present three effective pair potentials for heavy water, denoted SPC/E-HW, TIP3P-HW, and TIP4P/2005-HW. The models were parametrized by modifying widely used three- and four-site models for light water, with aim of maintaining the specific characteristics of the light water models. At room temperature, the SPC/E-HW and TIP3P-HW capture the modulations relative to light water of the mass and electron densities, heat of vaporization, diffusion coefficient, and water structure. TIP4P/2005-HW captures in addition the density of heavy water over a wide temperature range.