Near native-state conformational landscape of psychrophilic and mesophilic enzymes: probing the folding funnel model.
In recent years, increased interest has been directed to the study of enzyme adaptation to low temperatures. In particular, a peculiar folding funnel model was proposed for the free energy landscape of a psychrophilic alpha-amylase and other cold-adapted enzymes. In the present contribution, the comparison between the near native-state dynamics and conformational landscape in the essential subspace of different cold-adapted enzymes with their mesophilic counterparts, as obtained by more than 0.1 micros molecular dynamics simulations at different temperatures, allows the folding funnel model to be probed. Common characteristics were highlighted in the near native-state dynamics of psychrophilic enzymes belonging to different enzymatic families when compared to the mesophilic counterparts. According to the model, a cold-adapted enzyme in its native-state consists of a large population of conformations which can easily interconvert and result in high structural flexibility.
Mereghetti
Paolo
P
Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza, 2, 20126 Milan, Italy.
Riccardi
Laura
L
Brandsdal
Bjørn Olav
BO
Fantucci
Piercarlo
P
De Gioia
Luca
L
Papaleo
Elena
E
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004795:Enzyme Stability; D004798:Enzymes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics
D004798:Enzymes