a preformed binding interface in the unbound ensemble of an intrinsically disordered protein evidence from molecular simulations预制绑定接口的系综的内在无序蛋白质分子模拟的证据.pdfVIP

A Preformed Binding Interface in the Unbound Ensemble of an Intrinsically Disordered Protein: Evidence from Molecular Simulations Michael Knott, Robert B. Best* University of Cambridge, Department of Chemistry, Cambridge, United Kingdom Abstract Intrinsically disordered proteins play an important role in cellular signalling, mediated by their interactions with other biomolecules. A key question concerns the nature of their binding mechanism, and whether the bound structure is induced only by proximity to the binding partner. This is difficult to answer through experiment alone because of the very heterogeneous nature of the unbound ensemble, and the probable rapid interconversion of the various unbound structures. Here we report the most extensive set of simulations on NCBD to date: we use large-scale replica exchange molecular dynamics to explore the unbound state. An important feature of the study is the use of an atomistic force field that has been parametrised against experimental data for weakly structured peptides, together with an accurate explicit water model. Neither the force field nor the starting conformations are biased towards a particular structure. The regions of NCBD that have high helical propensity in the simulations correspond closely to helices in the ‘core’ unbound conformation determined by NMR, although no single member of the simulated unbound ensemble closely resembles the core conformation, or either of the two known bound conformations. We have validated the results against NMR spectroscopy and SAXS measurements, obtaining reasonable agreement. The two helices which most stabilise the binding of NCBD with ACTR are formed readily; the third helix,