title: Coherent neutron scattering and collective dynamics in the protein, GFP.
abstract: Collective dynamics are considered to be one of the major properties of soft materials, including biological macromolecules. We present coherent neutron scattering studies of the low-frequency vibrations, the so-called boson peak, in fully deuterated green fluorescent protein (GFP). Our analysis revealed unexpectedly low coherence of the atomic motions in GFP. This result implies a low amount of in-phase collective motion of the secondary structural units contributing to the boson peak vibrations and fast conformational fluctuations on the picosecond timescale. These observations are in contrast to earlier studies of polymers and glass-forming systems, and suggest that random or out-of-phase motions of the β-strands contribute greater than two-thirds of the intensity to the low-frequency vibrational spectra of GFP.
authors.affiliation: Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee. Electronic address: nickelsjd@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Nickels
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Perticaroli
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: Qiu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ehlers
authors.forename: Alexei P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Sokolov
mesh_terms: D003903:Deuterium / Q000737:chemistry; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D033363:Neutron Diffraction; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D014732:Vibration
chemical_list: D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D003903:Deuterium