title: Mechanism of Phosphorylation-Induced Folding of 4E-BP2 Revealed by Molecular Dynamics Simulations.
abstract: Site-specific phosphorylation of an intrinsically disordered protein, eIF4E-binding protein isoform 2 (4E-BP2), can suppress its native function by folding it into a four-stranded β-sheet, but the mechanism of this phosphorylation-induced folding is unclear. In this work, we use all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to investigate both the folded and unfolded states of 4E-BP2 under different phosphorylation states of T37 and T46. The results show that the phosphorylated forms of both T37 and T46 play important roles in stabilizing the folded structure, especially for the β-turns and the sequestered binding motif. The phosphorylated residues not only guide the folding of the protein through several intermediate states but also affect the conformational distribution of the unfolded ensemble. Significantly, the phosphorylated residues can function as nucleation sites for the folding of the protein by forming certain local structures that are stabilized by hydrogen bonding involving the phosphate group. The region around phosphorylated T46 appears to fold before that around phosphorylated T37. These findings provide new insight into the intricate effects of protein phosphorylation.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, Laboratory of Chemical Genomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8227-0415
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, Laboratory of Chemical Genomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, Laboratory of Chemical Genomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.|College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Yun-Dong
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D039642:Eukaryotic Initiation Factors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017510:Protein Folding
chemical_list: C104151:EIF4EBP2 protein, human; D039642:Eukaryotic Initiation Factors