pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
QM/MM study of the C-C coupling reaction mechanism of CYP121, an essential Cytochrome p450 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Among 20 p450s of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mt), CYP121 has received an outstanding interest, not only due to its essentiality for bacterial viability but also because it catalyzes an unusual carbon-carbon coupling reaction. Based on the structure of the substrate bound enzyme, several reaction mechanisms were proposed involving first Tyr radical formation, second Tyr radical formation, and C?C coupling. Key and unknown features, being the nature of the species that generate the first and second radicals, and the role played by the protein scaffold each step. In the present work we have used classical and quantum based computer simulation methods to study in detail its reaction mechanism. Our results show that substrate binding promotes formation of the initial oxy complex, Compound I is the responsible for first Tyr radical formation, and that the second Tyr radical is formed subsequently, through a PCET reaction, promoted by the presence of key residue Arg386. The final C-C coupling reaction possibly occurs in bulk solution, thus yielding the product in one oxygen reduction cycle. Our results thus contribute to a better comprehension of MtCYP121 reaction mechanism, with direct implications for inhibitor design, and also contribute to our general understanding of these type of enzymes.Fil: Dumas, Victoria Gisel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de Los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Defelipe, Lucas Alfredo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de Los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Petruk, Ariel Alcides. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Turjanski, Adrian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de Los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Marti, Marcelo Adrian. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; Argentin
Constant pH molecular dynamics of proteins in explicit solvent with proton tautomerism

pH is a ubiquitous regulator of biological activity, including protein‐folding, protein‐protein interactions, and enzymatic activity. Existing constant pH molecular dynamics (CPHMD) models that were developed to address questions related to the pH‐dependent properties of proteins are largely based on implicit solvent models. However, implicit solvent models are known to underestimate the desolvation energy of buried charged residues, increasing the error associated with predictions that involve internal ionizable residue that are important in processes like hydrogen transport and electron transfer. Furthermore, discrete water and ions cannot be modeled in implicit solvent, which are important in systems like membrane proteins and ion channels. We report on an explicit solvent constant pH molecular dynamics framework based on multi‐site λ‐dynamics (CPHMD MSλD ). In the CPHMD MSλD  framework, we performed seamless alchemical transitions between protonation and tautomeric states using multi‐site λ‐dynamics, and designed novel biasing potentials to ensure that the physical end‐states are predominantly sampled. We show that explicit solvent CPHMD MSλD  simulations model realistic pH‐dependent properties of proteins such as the Hen‐Egg White Lysozyme (HEWL), binding domain of 2‐oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (BBL) and N‐terminal domain of ribosomal protein L9 (NTL9), and the p K  a  predictions are in excellent agreement with experimental values, with a RMSE ranging from 0.72 to 0.84 p K  a  units. With the recent development of the explicit solvent CPHMD MSλD  framework for nucleic acids, accurate modeling of pH‐dependent properties of both major class of biomolecules—proteins and nucleic acids is now possible. Proteins 2014; 82:1319–1331. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc
A critical survey of average distances between catalytic carboxyl groups in glycoside hydrolases

Published X-ray crystallographic structures for glycoside hydrolases (GHs) from 39 different families are surveyed according to some rigorous selection criteria, and the distances separating 208 pairs of catalytic carboxyl groups (20 α-retaining, 87 β-retaining, 38 α-inverting, and 63 β-inverting) are analyzed. First, the average of all four inter-carboxyl OO distances for each pair is determined; second, the mean of all the pair-averages within each GH family is determined; third, means are determined for groups of GH families. No significant differences are found for free structures compared with those complexed with a ligand in the active site of the enzyme, nor for α-GHs as compared with β-GHs. The mean and standard deviation (1σ) of the unimodal distribution of average OO distances for all families of inverting GHs is 8±2Å, with a very wide range from 5Å (GH82) to nearly 13Å (GH46). The distribution of average OO distances for all families of retaining GHs appears to be bimodal: the means and standard deviations of the two groups are 4.8±0.3Å and 6.4±0.6Å. These average values are more representative, and more likely to be meaningful, than the often-quoted literature values, which are based on a very small sample of structures. The newly-updated average values proposed here may alter perceptions about what separations between catalytic residues are "normal" or "abnormal" for GHs
Solution NMR studies reveal no global flexibility in the catalytic domain of CDC25B

The CDC25B phosphatase is a critical regulator of the cell cycle and has been validated as an important therapeutic target in cancer. Previous studies using molecular dynamics simulations have concluded that the catalytic domain of CDC25B may experience a significant degree of dynamics or be partially disordered in solution, a finding that has a pronounced impact on the structure‐based development of CDC25B inhibitors. We have probed the backbone dynamics of the CDC25B catalytic domain in solution using NMR relaxation experiments and found that the core of the protein is relatively rigid and does not experience any large‐scale dynamics over a broad range of time scales. Furthermore, based on residual dipolar coupling measurements we have concluded that the conformation in solution is very similar to that observed in the crystal form. Importantly, these findings rationalize the application of the CDC25B crystal structure in structure‐based drug development. Proteins 2014; 82:2889–2895. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc
Structures of mesophilic and extremophilic citrate synthases reveal rigidity and flexibility for function

Citrate synthase (CS) catalyses the entry of carbon into the citric acid cycle and is highly-conserved structurally across the tree of life. Crystal structures of dimeric CSs are known in both “open” and “closed” forms, which differ by a substantial domain motion that closes the substrate-binding clefts. We explore both the static rigidity and the dynamic flexibility of CS structures from mesophilic and extremophilic organisms from all three evolutionary domains. The computational expense of this wide-ranging exploration is kept to a minimum by the use of rigidity analysis and rapid all-atom simulations of flexible motion, combining geometric simulation and elastic network modeling. CS structures from thermophiles display increased structural rigidity compared with the mesophilic enzyme. A CS structure from a psychrophile, stabilized by strong ionic interactions, appears to display likewise increased rigidity in conventional rigidity analysis; however, a novel modified analysis, taking into account the weakening of the hydrophobic effect at low temperatures, shows a more appropriate decreased rigidity. These rigidity variations do not, however, affect the character of the flexible dynamics, which are well conserved across all the structures studied. Simulation trajectories not only duplicate the crystallographically observed symmetric open-to-closed transitions, but also identify motions describing a previously unidentified antisymmetric functional motion. This antisymmetric motion would not be directly observed in crystallography but is revealed as an intrinsic property of the CS structure by modeling of flexible motion. This suggests that the functional motion closing the binding clefts in CS may be independent rather than symmetric and cooperative
Unbinding and unfolding of adhesion protein complexes through
  stretching: Interplay between shear and tensile mechanical clamps

Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we analyze mechanically
induced dissociation and unfolding of the protein complex CD48-2B4. This
heterodimer is an indispensable component of the immunological system: 2B4 is a
receptor on natural killer cells whereas CD48 is expressed on surfaces of
various immune cells. So far, its mechanostability has not been assessed either
experimentally or theoretically. We find that the dissociation processes
strongly depend on the direction of pulling and may take place in several
pathways. Interestingly, the CD48-2B4 interface can be divided into three
distinct patches that act as units when resisting the pulling forces. At
experimentally accessible pulling speeds, the characteristic mechanostability
forces are in the range between 100 and 200 pN, depending on the pulling
direction. These characteristic forces need not be associated with tensile
forces involved in the act of separation of the complex because prior
shear-involving unraveling within individual proteins may give rise to a higher
force peak.Comment: published in "Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics
Accurate single-sequence prediction of solvent accessible surface area using local and global features

We present a new approach for predicting the Accessible Surface Area (ASA) using a General Neural Network (GENN). The novelty of the new approach lies in not using residue mutation profiles generated by multiple sequence alignments as descriptive inputs. Instead we use solely sequential window information and global features such as single-residue and two-residue compositions of the chain. The resulting predictor is both highly more efficient than sequence alignment-based predictors and of comparable accuracy to them. Introduction of the global inputs significantly helps achieve this comparable accuracy. The predictor, termed ASAquick, is tested on predicting the ASA of globular proteins and found to perform similarly well for so-called easy and hard cases indicating generalizability and possible usability for de-novo protein structure prediction. The source code and a Linux executables for GENN and ASAquick are available from Research and Information Systems at http://mamiris.com, from the SPARKS Lab at http://sparks-lab.org, and from the Battelle Center for Mathematical Medicine at http://mathmed.org
Structure of a cupin protein Plu4264 from Photorhabdus luminescens subsp. laumondii TTO1 at 1.35 Å resolution

Proteins belonging to the cupin superfamily have a wide range of catalytic and noncatalytic functions. Cupin proteins commonly have the capacity to bind a metal ion with the metal frequently determining the function of the protein. We have been investigating the function of homologous cupin proteins that are conserved in more than 40 species of bacteria. To gain insights into the potential function of these proteins we have solved the structure of Plu4264 from Photorhabdus luminescens TTO1 at a resolution of 1.35 Å and identified manganese as the likely natural metal ligand of the protein
Frequent side chain methyl carbon‐oxygen hydrogen bonding in proteins revealed by computational and stereochemical analysis of neutron structures

The propensity of backbone Cα atoms to engage in carbon‐oxygen (CH···O) hydrogen bonding is well‐appreciated in protein structure, but side chain CH···O hydrogen bonding remains largely uncharacterized. The extent to which side chain methyl groups in proteins participate in CH···O hydrogen bonding is examined through a survey of neutron crystal structures, quantum chemistry calculations, and molecular dynamics simulations. Using these approaches, methyl groups were observed to form stabilizing CH···O hydrogen bonds within protein structure that are maintained through protein dynamics and participate in correlated motion. Collectively, these findings illustrate that side chain methyl CH···O hydrogen bonding contributes to the energetics of protein structure and folding. Proteins 2015; 83:403–410. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc
Improving accuracy of protein contact prediction using balanced network deconvolution

Residue contact map is essential for protein three‐dimensional structure determination. But most of the current contact prediction methods based on residue co‐evolution suffer from high false‐positives as introduced by indirect and transitive contacts (i.e., residues A–B and B–C are in contact, but A–C are not). Built on the work by Feizi et al. (Nat Biotechnol 2013; 31:726–733), which demonstrated a general network model to distinguish direct dependencies by network deconvolution, this study presents a new balanced network deconvolution (BND) algorithm to identify optimized dependency matrix without limit on the eigenvalue range in the applied network systems. The algorithm was used to filter contact predictions of five widely used co‐evolution methods. On the test of proteins from three benchmark datasets of the 9th critical assessment of protein structure prediction (CASP9), CASP10, and PSICOV (precise structural contact prediction using sparse inverse covariance estimation) database experiments, the BND can improve the medium‐ and long‐range contact predictions at the L/5 cutoff by 55.59% and 47.68%, respectively, without additional central processing unit cost. The improvement is statistically significant, with a P‐value < 5.93 × 10−3 in the Student's t‐test. A further comparison with the ab initio structure predictions in CASPs showed that the usefulness of the current co‐evolution‐based contact prediction to the three‐dimensional structure modeling relies on the number of homologous sequences existing in the sequence databases. BND can be used as a general contact refinement method, which is freely available at: http://www.csbio.sjtu.edu.cn/bioinf/BND/. Proteins 2015; 83:485–496. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc
Inferring the microscopic surface energy of protein-protein interfaces from mutation data

Mutations at protein-protein recognition sites alter binding strength by altering the chemical nature of the interacting surfaces. We present a simple surface energy model, parameterised with empirical DDG values, yielding mean energies of -48 cal.mol−1.°A−2 for interactions between hydrophobic surfaces, -51 to -80 cal.mol−1.°A −2 for surfaces of complementary charge, and 66 to 83 cal.mol−1.°A−2 for electrostatically repelling surfaces, relative to the aqueous phase. This places the mean energy of hydrophobic surface burial at -24 cal.mol−1.°A−2. Despite neglecting configurational entropy and intramolecular changes, the model correlates with empirical binding free energies of a functionally diverse set of rigid-body interactions (r=0.66). When used to rerank docking poses, it can place near-native solutions in the top 10 for 37% of the complexes evaluated, and 82% in the top 100. The method shows that hydrophobic burial is the driving force for protein association, accounting for 50-95% of the cohesive energy. The model is available opensource from http://life.bsc.es/pid/web/surface_energy/ and via the CCharpPPI web server http://life.bsc.es/pid/ccharppi/.This research was in part supported by postdoctoral fellowship funded by European\ud
Union Structural Funds project ”Postdoctoral Fellowship Implementation in Lithuania”. The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Unions Seventh\ud
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement PIEF-GA- 2012-327899, and the SpanishMinistry of Science and Innovation project [BIO2013-\ud
48213-R]. The authors declare no conflict of interests.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
BCL::MP-Fold: membrane protein structure prediction guided by EPR
  restraints

For many membrane proteins the determination of their topology remains a
challenge for methods like X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR) spectroscopy. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy has
evolved as an alternative technique to study structure and dynamics of membrane
proteins. The present study demonstrates the feasibility of membrane protein
topology determination using limited EPR distance and accessibility
measurements. The BCL::MP-Fold (BioChemical Library membrane protein fold)
algorithm assembles secondary structure elements (SSEs) in the membrane using a
Monte Carlo Metropolis (MCM) approach. Sampled models are evaluated using
knowledge-based potential functions and agreement with the EPR data and a
knowledge-based energy function. Twenty-nine membrane proteins of up to 696
residues are used to test the algorithm. The RMSD100 value of the most accurate
model is better than 8 {\AA} for twenty-seven, better than 6 {\AA} for
twenty-two and better than 4 {\AA} for fifteen out of twenty-nine proteins,
demonstrating the algorithms ability to sample the native topology. The average
enrichment could be improved from 1.3 to 2.5, showing the improved
discrimination power by using EPR data.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, 6 table
Structural and Functional Analysis of SleL, a Peptidoglycan Lysin Involved in Germination of Bacillus Spores

A major event in the germination of Bacillus spores concerns hydrolysis of the cortical peptidoglycan that surrounds the spore protoplast, the integrity of which is essential for maintenance of dormancy. Cortex degradation is initiated in all species of Bacillus spores by the combined activity of two semi-redundant cortex-lytic enzymes, SleB and CwlJ. A third enzyme, SleL, which has N-acetylglucosaminidase activity, cleaves peptidoglycan fragments generated by SleB and CwlJ. Here we present crystal structures of B. cereus and B. megaterium SleL at 1.6 angstroms and 1.7 angstroms, respectively. The structures were determined with a view to identifying the structural basis of differences in catalytic efficiency between the respective enzymes. The catalytic (α/β)_8-barrel cores of both enzymes are highly conserved from a structural perspective, including the spatial distribution of the catalytic residues. Both enzymes are equipped with two N-terminal peptidoglycan-binding LysM domains, which are also structurally highly conserved. However, the topological arrangement of the respective enzymes second LysM domain is markedly different, and this may account for differences in catalytic rates by impacting upon the position of the active sites with respect to their substrates. A chimeric enzyme comprising the B. megaterium SleL catalytic domain plus B. cereus SleL LysM domains displayed enzymatic activity comparable to the native B. cereus protein, exemplifying the importance of the LysM domains to SleL function. Similarly, the reciprocal construct, comprising the B. cereus SleL catalytic domain with B. megaterium SleL LysM domains, showed reduced activity compared to native B. cereus SleL.The crystallographic experiments were performed in the Crystallographic X7ray Facility (CXF) at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge. DYC was supported by CXF.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/prot.2486
Crystal structure of the PepSY-containing domain of the YpeB protein involved in germination of Bacillus spores

The crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of the Bacillus megaterium YpeB protein has been solved by X-ray crystallography to 1.80 Å resolution. The full-length protein is essential in stabilising the SleB cortex lytic enzyme in Bacillus spores, and may have a role in regulating SleB activity during spore germination. The YpeB-C crystal structure comprises three tandemly repeated PepSY domains, which are aligned to form an extended laterally compressed molecule. A predominantly positively charged region located in the second PepSY domain may provide a site for protein interactions that are important in stabilising SleB and YpeB within the spore.The author acknowledges support from various sources including the new lecturers' start up funding from Cambridge University and a donation from the Government Decontamination Service.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/prot.2486
Fast assessment of structural models of ion channels based on their
  predicted current-voltage characteristics

Computational prediction of protein structures is a difficult task, which
involves fast and accurate evaluation of candidate model structures. We propose
to enhance single model quality assessment with a functionality evaluation
phase for proteins whose quantitative functional characteristics are known. In
particular, this idea can be applied to evaluation of structural models of ion
channels, whose main function - conducting ions - can be quantitatively
measured with the patch-clamp technique providing the current-voltage
characteristics. The study was performed on a set of KcsA channel models
obtained from complete and incomplete contact maps. A fast continuous
electrodiffusion model was used for calculating the current-voltage
characteristics of structural models. We found that the computed charge
selectivity and total current were sensitive to structural and electrostatic
quality of models. In practical terms, we show that evaluating predicted
conductance values is an appropriate method to eliminate modes with an occluded
pore or with multiple erroneously created pores. Moreover, filtering models on
the basis of their predicted charge selectivity results in a substantial
enrichment of the candidate set in highly accurate models. In addition to being
a proof of the concept, our function-oriented single model quality assessment
tool can be directly applied for evaluation of structural models of
strongly-selective protein channels. Finally, our work raises an important
question whether a computational validation of functionality should not be
included in the evaluation process of structural models, whenever possible