Allosteric effect implies ligand binding at one site leading to structural and/or dynamical changes at a distant site. PDZ domains are classic examples of dynamic allostery without conformational changes, where distal side-chain dynamics is modulated on ligand binding and the origin has been attributed to entropic effects. In this work, we unearth the energetic basis of the observed dynamic allostery in a PDZ3 domain protein using molecular dynamics simulations. We demonstrate that electrostatic interaction provides a highly sensitive yardstick to probe the allosteric modulation in contrast to the traditionally used structure-based parameters. There is a significant population shift in the hydrogen-bonded network and salt bridges involving side chains on ligand binding. The ligand creates a local energetic perturbation that propagates in the form of dominolike changes in interresidue interaction pattern. There are significant changes in the nature of specific interactions (nonpolar/ polar) between interresidue contacts and accompanied side-chain reorientations that drive the major redistribution of energy. Interestingly, this internal redistribution and rewiring of side-chain interactions led to large cancellations resulting in small change in the overall enthalpy of the protein, thus making it difficult to detect experimentally. In contrast to the prevailing focus on the entropic or dynamic effects, we show that the internal redistribution and population shift in specific electrostatic interactions drive the allosteric modulation in the PDZ3 domain protein.A llosteric regulation of proteins plays a key role in physiological cell functions, biochemical and signal transduction pathways, and drug discovery (1-3). It has remained a challenge to understand how the thermodynamic perturbation caused by ligand binding at one site would propagate and modulate the structure and dynamics of distal regions of proteins. The prevailing models of structure-based allostery (4, 5) do not apply to the more recent examples of allostery without conformational change such as PDZ domain (6), CAP dimer (7), and met repressor (8). These examples have triggered the concept of dynamic allostery, where the side-chain dynamics is modulated on ligand binding and the origin has often been attributed to changes in the conformational entropy (9, 10). The modern view of allostery invokes a thermodynamic picture, where a population shift among preexisting conformational states occurs on binding the allosteric effector (11-13). It has also been suggested in the context of allostery without conformational change that "not observed does not imply that it is not there" (10) because crystallographic techniques may not resolve the relatively minor population shifts. An interesting idea has emerged that all proteins might be allosteric in nature (14).PDZ domain has been a classic model system to study single domain allostery without major structural changes (9, 15, 16) (Fig. 1A). PDZ domains are evolutionary conserved proteinprotein interaction module...

Noncovalent interactions, in particular the hydrogen bonds and nonspecific long-range electrostatic interactions are fundamental to biomolecular functions. A molecular understanding of the local electrostatic environment, consistently for both specific (hydrogen-bonding) and nonspecific electrostatic (local polarity) interactions, is essential for a detailed understanding of these processes. Vibrational Stark Effect (VSE) has proven to be an extremely useful method to measure the local electric field using infrared spectroscopy of carbonyl and nitrile based probes. The nitrile chemical group would be an ideal choice because of its absorption in an infrared spectral window transparent to biomolecules, ease of site-specific incorporation into proteins, and common occurrence as a substituent in various drug molecules. However, the inability of VSE to describe the dependence of IR frequency on electric field for hydrogen-bonded nitriles to date has severely limited nitrile's utility to probe the noncovalent interactions. In this work, using infrared spectroscopy and atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, we have reported for the first time a linear correlation between nitrile frequencies and electric fields in a wide range of hydrogen-bonding environments that may bridge the existing gap between VSE and H-bonding interactions. We have demonstrated the robustness of this field-frequency correlation for both aromatic nitriles and sulfur-based nitriles in a wide range of molecules of varying size and compactness, including small molecules in complex solvation environments, an amino acid, disordered peptides, and structured proteins. This correlation, when coupled to VSE, can be used to quantify noncovalent interactions, specific or nonspecific, in a consistent manner.

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Gaining detailed understanding of the energetics of the proton-pumping process in cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) is a problem of great current interest. Despite promising mechanistic proposals, so far, a physically consistent model that would reproduce all the relevant barriers needed to create a working pump has not been presented. In addition, there are major problems in elucidating the origin of key mutational effects and in understanding the nature of the apparent pKa values associated with the pH dependencies of specific proton transfer (PT) reactions in CcO. This work takes a key step in resolving the above problems, by considering mutations, such as the Asn139Asp replacement, that blocks proton pumping without affecting PT to the catalytic site. We first introduce a formulation that makes it possible to relate the apparent pKa of Glu286 to different conformational states of this residue. We then use the new formulation along with the calculated pKa values of Glu286 at these different conformations to reproduce the experimentally observed apparent pKa of the residue. Next, we take the X-ray structures of the native and Asn139Asp mutant of the Paracoccus denitrificans CcO (N131D in this system) and reproduce for the first time the change in the primary PT pathways (and other key features) based on simulations that start with the observed structural changes. We also consider the competition between proton transport to the catalytic site and the pump site, as a function of the bulk pH, as well as the H/D isotope effect, and use this information to explore the relative height of the two barriers. The paper emphasizes the crucial role of energy-based considerations that include the PT process, and the delicate control of PT in CcO.

Consistent description of the effect of internal water in proteins has been a major challenge for both simulation and experimental studies. This effect has been particularly important and elusive in cases of charges in protein interiors. Here we present a new microscopic method that provides an efficient way for simulating the energetics of water insertion. Instead of performing explicit Monte Carlo (MC) moves on the insertion process, which generally involves an enormous number of rejected attempts, our method is based on generating trial configurations with excess amount of internal water, estimating the relevant free energy by the linear response approximation (LRA) and then using a postprocessing MC treatment to filter out a limited number of configurations from a very large possible set. Our approach is validated on particularly challenging test cases including the pKa of the V66D mutation in Staphylococcal Nuclease (SNase), Glu286 in Cytochrome c Oxidase (CcO) and the energetics of a protonated water molecule in the D channel of CcO. This approach allows us to reproduce the relevant energetics of highly unstable charges in protein interiors using fully microscopic calculations and provides a very substantial improvement over regular microscopic free energy estimates. This establishes the effectiveness of our water insertion strategy in challenging cases that have not been addressed successfully by other microscopic methods. Furthermore, our study provides a new exciting view on the crucial effect of water penetration in key biological systems as well as a new view on the nature of the dielectric in protein interiors.

Long-term storage and stability of DNA is of paramount importance in biomedical applications. Ever since the emergence of ionic liquids (ILs) as alternate green solvents to aqueous and organic solvents, their exploration for the extraction and application of DNA need conscientious understanding of the binding characteristics and molecular interactions between IL and DNA. Choline amino acid ILs (CAAILs) in this regard seem to be promising due to their non-cytotoxic, completely biobased and environment-friendly nature. To unravel the key factors for the strength and binding mechanism of CAAILs with DNA, various spectroscopic techniques, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulations were employed in this work. UV–Vis spectra indicate multimodal binding of CAAILs with DNA, whereas dye displacement studies through fluorescence emission confirm the intrusion of IL molecules into the minor groove of DNA. Circular dichorism spectra show that DNA retains its native B-conformation in CAAILs. Both isothermal titration calorimetry and molecular docking studies provide an estimate of the binding affinity of DNA with CAAILs ≈ 4 kcal/mol. The heterogeneity in binding modes of CAAIL-DNA system with evolution of time was established by molecular dynamics simulations. Choline cation while approaching DNA first binds at surface through electrostatic interactions, whereas a stronger binding at minor groove occurs via van der Waals and hydrophobic interactions irrespective of anions considered in this study. We hope this result can encourage and guide the researchers in designing new bio-ILs for biomolecular studies in future.

Understanding the detailed mechanism of the activation of voltage-gated ion channels has been a problem of great current interest. Reliable molecular simulations of voltage effects present a major challenge because meaningful converging microscopic simulations are not yet available and macroscopic treatments involve major uncertainties regarding the dielectric constant used and other key features. The current work has overcome some of the above challenges by using our recently developed coarse-grained (CG) model in simulating the activation of the Kv1.2 channel. The CG model has allowed us to explore problems that cannot be addressed at present by fully microscopic simulations, while providing insights on some features that are not usually considered in continuum models, including the distribution of the electrolytes between the membrane and the electrodes during the activation process and thus the nature of the gating current. Furthermore, the clear connection to microscopic descriptions combined with the power of CG modeling offers a powerful tool for exploring the energy balance between the protein conformational energy and the interaction with the external potential in voltage-activated channels. Our simulations have reproduced the observed experimental trend of the gating charge and, most significantly, the correct trend in the free energies, where the closed channel is more stable at negative potential and the open channel is more stable at positive potential. Moreover, we provide a unique view of the activation landscape and the time dependence of the activation process.membrane potential | stability | free energy T he elucidation of the structure of voltage-activated ion channels and biophysical studies (e.g., refs. 1-5) have provided key information about the relationship between the membrane voltage and the gating process. However, despite these great advances, we still do not have a clear picture of the corresponding structure-function correlation. Furthermore, although there has been significant progress in the computational modeling of the energetics of ion channels (e.g., refs. 6-10), the understanding of the voltage activation process is rather limited. Not only have the exact structural changes not been fully determined, but the energetics of the conformational transition and the coupling to the external voltage are far from being understood.To clarify the current challenges, it is useful to follow the general concept depicted in the schematic diagram of Fig. 1A. As shown in the figure, in the resting state (with a negative potential), the channel is in its closed state, where the free energy of moving to the open state is positive. The application of a positive potential stabilizes the open state, leading to a conformational transition to this state, where the channel allows ion transport. The overall process can be captured once we have the relevant free energy landscape, which should follow the trend of Fig. 1B. This landscape depicts a path from a region of closed channel at negative potentia...

Understanding the nature of the free energy surfaces for phosphate hydrolysis is a prerequisite for understanding the corresponding key chemical reactions in biology. Here the challenge has been to move to careful ab initio QM/MM (QM(ai)/MM) free energy calculations, where obtaining converging results is very demanding and computationally expensive. This work describes such calculations, focusing on the free energy surface for the hydrolysis of phosphate monoesters, paying a special attention to the comparison between the one water (1W) and two water (2W) paths for the proton transfer (PT) step. This issue has been explored before by energy minimization with implicit solvent models and by non-systematic QM/MM energy minimization, as well as by non-systematic free energy mapping. However, no study has provided the needed reliable 2D (3D) surfaces which are necessary for reaching concrete conclusions. Our study generated in a systematic way the 2D (3D) free energy maps for several relevant systems, comparing the results of QM(ai)/MM and QM(ai)/implicit solvent surfaces, and provides an advanced description of the relevant energetics. It is found that the 1W path for the hydrolysis of methyl diphosphate (MDP) trianion is 6–9 kcal/mol higher than the 2W path. This difference becomes slightly larger in the presence of Mg2+ ion, since this ion reduces the pKa of the conjugated acid form of the phosphate oxygen that accepts the proton. Interestingly, the BLYP approach (which has been used extensively in some studies) gives much smaller difference between the 1W and 2W activation barriers. At any rate, it is worth to point out that the 2W transition state for the PT is not much higher that the common plateau that serves as the starting point of both the 1W and 2W PT paths. Thus, the calculated catalytic effects of proteins based on the 2W PT mechanistic models are not expected to be different from the catalytic effects predicted using the 1W PT mechanistic models calibrated on the observed barriers in solution (as was done in all of our previous EVB studies).