Salt effects on surface-tethered peptides in solution.

The capability to manipulate proteins/peptide fragments at liquid-solid interfaces has led to tremendous applications in detectors and biotechnology. Therefore, understanding the detailed molecular behavior of proteins and peptides tethered on a hard material surface is an interesting and important topic. The inhomogeneity presented by surfaces as well as ions in the solution plays an important role in the thermodynamics and kinetics of the tethered proteins. In this study, we perform a series of molecular dynamics simulations of a pentapeptide RHSVV, a p53 epitope, tethered on a prepared microarray surface in various salt concentrations (0, 0.14, 0.5, and 1 M NaCl), as well as free in ionic solution (0, 0.5, and 1 M). The conformational space the tethered peptide visits largely overlaps with the free peptide in solution. However, surface tethering as well as the salt concentration changes both the thermodynamics and kinetics of the peptide. Frequent conformational changes are observed during the simulations and tend to be slowed down by both increasing the salt concentration and surface tethering. The local composition of ions at different salt concentrations is also compared between the tethered and free peptide.

Transport properties of water at functionalized molecular interfaces.

Understanding transport properties of solvent such as diffusion and viscosity at interfaces with biomacromolecules and hard materials is of fundamental importance to both biology and biotechnology. Our study utilizes equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations to calculate solvent transport properties at a model peptide and microarray surface. Both diffusion and selected components of viscosity are considered. Solvent diffusion is found to be affected near the peptide and surface. The stress-stress correlation function of solvent near the hard surface exhibits long time memory. Both diffusion and viscosity are shown to be closely correlated with the density distribution function of water along the microarray surface.

Allosteric discrimination at the NADH/ADP regulatory site of glutamate dehydrogenase.

Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) is a target for treating insulin-related disorders, such as hyperinsulinism hyperammonemia syndrome. Modeling native ligand binding has shown promise in designing GDH inhibitors and activators. Our computational investigation of the nicotinamide adenine diphosphate hydride (NADH)/adenosine diphosphate (ADP) site presented in this paper provides insight into the opposite allosteric effects induced at a single site of binding inhibitor NADH versus activator ADP to GDH. The computed binding free-energy difference between NADH and ADP using thermodynamic integration is -0.3 kcal/mol, which is within the -0.275 and -1.7 kcal/mol experimental binding free-energy difference range. Our simulations show an interesting model of ADP with dissimilar binding conformations at each NADH/ADP site in the GDH trimer, which explains the poorly understood strong binding but weak activation shown in experimental studies. In contrast, NADH showed similar inhibitory binding conformations at each NADH/ADP site. The structural analysis of the important residues in the NADH/ADP binding site presented in this paper may provide potential targets for mutation studies for allosteric drug design.

The pathway of oligomeric DNA melting investigated by molecular dynamics simulations.

Details of the reaction coordinate for DNA melting are fundamental to much of biology and biotechnology. Recently, it has been shown experimentally that there are at least three states involved. To clarify the reaction mechanism of the melting transition of DNA, we perform 100-ns molecular dynamics simulations of a homo-oligomeric, 12-basepair DNA duplex, d(A(12)).d(T(12)), with explicit salt water at 400 K. Analysis of the trajectory reveals the various biochemically important processes that occur on different timescales. Peeling (including fraying from the ends), searching for Watson-Crick complements, and dissociation are recognizable processes. However, we find that basepair searching for Watson-Crick complements along a strand is not mechanistically tied to or directly accessible from the dissociation steps of strand melting. A three-step melting mechanism is proposed where the untwisting of the duplex is determined to be the major component of the reaction coordinate at the barrier. Though the observations are limited to the characteristics of the system being studied, they provide important insight into the mechanism of melting of other more biologically relevant forms of DNA, which will certainly differ in details from those here.

Peptide Solubility Limits: Backbone and Side-Chain Interactions.

We calculate the solubility limit of pentapeptides in water by simulating the phase separation in an oversaturated aqueous solution. The solubility limit order followed by our model peptides (GGRGG > GGDGG > GGGGG > GGVGG > GGQGG > GGNGG > GGFGG) is found to be the same as that reported for amino acid monomers from experiment (R > D > G > V > Q > N > F). Investigation of dynamical properties of peptides shows that the higher the solubility of a peptide is, the lower the time spent by the peptide in the aggregated cluster is. We also demonstrate that fluctuations in conformation and hydration number of peptide in monomeric form are correlated with the solubility of the peptide. We considered energetic mechanisms and dynamical properties of interbackbone CO-CO and CO···HN interactions. Our results confirm that CO-CO interactions more than the interbackbone H-bonds are important in peptide self-assembly and association. Further, we find that the stability of H-bonded peptide pairs arises mainly from coexisting CO-CO and CO···HN interactions.

Peptide conformations for a microarray surface-tethered epitope of the tumor suppressor p53.

Peptides or proteins near surfaces exhibit different structural properties from those present in a homogeneous solution, and these differences give rise to varied biological activity. Therefore, understanding the detailed molecular structure of these molecules tethered to a surface is important for interpreting the performance of the various microarrays based on the activities of the immobilized peptides or proteins. We performed molecular dynamics simulations of a pentapeptide, RHSVV, an epitope of the tumor suppressor protein p53, tethered via a spacer on a functionalized silica surface and free in solution, to study their structural and conformational differences. These calculations allowed analyses of the peptide-surface interactions, the sequence orientations, and the translational motions of the peptide on the surface to be performed. Conformational similarities are found among dominant structures of the tethered and free peptide. In the peptide microarray simulations, the peptide fluctuates between a parallel and tilted orientation driven in part by the hydrophobic interactions between the nonpolar peptide residues and the methyl-terminated silica surface. The perpendicular movement of the peptide relative to the surface is also restricted due to the hydrophobic nature of the microarray surface. With regard to structures available for recognition and binding, we find that similar conformations to those found in solution are available to the peptide tethered to the surface, but with a shifted equilibrium constant. Comparisons with experimental results show important implications of this for peptide microarray design and assays.

Solubility and aggregation of Gly(5) in water.

Experimentally, the solubility of oligoglycines in water decreases as its length increases. Computationally, the free energy of solvation becomes more favorable with chain length for short (n = 1-5) oligoglycines. We present results of large scale simulations with over 600 pentaglycines at varying concentrations in explicit solvent to consider the mechanism of aggregation. The solubility limit of Gly5 for the force field used was calculated and compared with experimental values. We find that intermolecular interactions between pentaglycines are favored over interactions between glycine and water, leading to their aggregation. However, the interaction driving peptide associations, liquid-liquid phase separation, are not predominantly hydrogen bonding. Instead, non-hydrogen bonding interactions between partially charged atoms on the peptide backbone allow the formation of dipole-dipole and charge layering correlations that mechanistically stabilize the formation of large, stable peptide clusters.

Fast Calculations of Electrostatic Solvation Free Energy from Reconstructed Solvent Density using proximal Radial Distribution Functions.

Although detailed atomic models may be applied for a full description of solvation, simpler phenomenological models are particularly useful to interpret the results for scanning many, large, complex systems where a full atomic model is too computationally expensive to use. Among the most costly are solvation free energy evaluations by simulation. Here we develop a fast way to calculate electrostatic solvation free energy while retaining much of the accuracy of explicit solvent free energy simulation. The basis of our method is to treat the solvent not as a structureless dielectric continuum, but as a structured medium by making use of universal proximal radial distribution functions. Using a deca-alanine peptide as a test case, we compare the use of our theory with free energy simulations and traditional continuum estimates of the electrostatic solvation free energy.

THE MELTING MECHANISM OF DNA TETHERED TO A SURFACE.

The details of melting of DNA immobilized on a chip or nanoparticle determines the sensitivity and operating characteristics of many analytical and synthetic biotechnological devices. Yet, little is known about the differences in how the DNA melting occurs between a homogeneous solution and that on a chip. We used molecular dynamics simulations to explore possible pathways for DNA melting on a chip. Simulation conditions were chosen to ensure that melting occurred in a submicrosecond timescale. The temperature was set to 400 K and the NaCl concentration was set to 0.1 M. We found less symmetry than in the solution case where for oligomeric double-stranded nucleic acids both ends melted with roughly equal probability. On a prepared silica surface we found melting is dominated by fraying from the end away from the surface. Strand separation was hindered by nonspecific surface adsorption at this temperature. At elevated temperatures the melted DNA was attracted to even uncharged organically coated surfaces demonstrating surface fouling. While hybridization is not the simple reverse of melting, this simulation has implications for the kinetics of hybridization.

Orientation of DNA on a surface from simulation.

DNA orientation near surfaces determines many properties related to hybridization efficiency. We performed a 40-ns molecular dynamics simulation to study the structure and orientation of a 12-base-pair DNA duplex tethered to a neutral, epoxide-coated silica surface. Starting with a canonical B-form tethered in an up-right position, normal to the surface, the DNA tilted to over 55 degrees and back. The time scale was a few nanoseconds for tilting events. The linker between the DNA and the surface went from standing upright to tilted, and finally collapsed on the surface. Although the DNA conformation fluctuated, it remained closed to B-form for the entire 40 ns. Calculations of helical parameters of the DNA show that the tethered end of the DNA changed its conformation noticeably when attracted to the surface.