title: Myosin flexibility: structural domains and collective vibrations.
abstract: The movement of the myosin motor along an actin filament involves a directed conformational change within the cross-bridge formed between the protein and the filament. Despite the structural data that has been obtained on this system, little is known of the mechanics of this conformational change. We have used existing crystallographic structures of three conformations of the myosin head, containing the motor domain and the lever arm, for structural comparisons and mechanical studies with a coarse-grained elastic network model. The results enable us to define structurally conserved domains within the protein and to better understand myosin flexibility. Notably they point to the role of the light chains in rigidifying the lever arm and to changes in flexibility as a consequence of nucleotide binding.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Structure Section, Laboratory of Experimental and Computational Biology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-5677, USA.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Navizet
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lavery
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Jernigan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008974:Mollusca / Q000737:chemistry; D024462:Myosin Type II / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000378:metabolism; D018583:Pliability; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D014732:Vibration
chemical_list: D009711:Nucleotides; D024462:Myosin Type II