Evolution of large Aß16-22 aggregates at atomic details and potential of mean force associated to peptide unbinding and fragmentation events.

Atomic characterization of large nonfibrillar aggregates of amyloid polypeptides cannot be determined by experimental means. Starting from ß-rich aggregates of Y and elongated topologies predicted by coarse-grained simulations and consisting of more than 100 Aß16-22 peptides, we performed atomistic molecular dynamics (MD), replica exchange with solute scaling (REST2), and umbrella sampling simulations using the CHARMM36m force field in explicit solvent. Here, we explored the dynamics within 3 µs, the free energy landscape, and the potential of mean force associated with either the unbinding of one single peptide in different configurations within the aggregate or fragmentation events of a large number of peptides. Within the time scale of MD and REST2, we find that the aggregates experience slow global conformational plasticity, and remain essentially random coil though we observe slow beta-strand structuring with a dominance of antiparallel beta-sheets over parallel beta-sheets. Enhanced REST2 simulation is able to capture fragmentation events, and the free energy of fragmentation of a large block of peptides is found to be similar to the free energy associated with fibril depolymerization by one chain for longer Aß sequences.

Amyloid Oligomers: A Joint Experimental/Computational Perspective on Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Type II Diabetes, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Protein misfolding and aggregation is observed in many amyloidogenic diseases affecting either the central nervous system or a variety of peripheral tissues. Structural and dynamic characterization of all species along the pathways from monomers to fibrils is challenging by experimental and computational means because they involve intrinsically disordered proteins in most diseases. Yet understanding how amyloid species become toxic is the challenge in developing a treatment for these diseases. Here we review what computer, in vitro, in vivo, and pharmacological experiments tell us about the accumulation and deposition of the oligomers of the (Aß, tau), α-synuclein, IAPP, and superoxide dismutase 1 proteins, which have been the mainstream concept underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), type II diabetes (T2D), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research, respectively, for many years.

Sequestration of Proteins in Stress Granules Relies on the In-Cell but Not the In Vitro Folding Stability.

Stress granules (SGs) are among the most studied membraneless organelles that form upon heat stress (HS) to sequester unfolded, misfolded, or aggregated protein, supporting protein quality control (PQC) clearance. The folding states that are primarily associated with SGs, as well as the function of the phase separated environment in adjusting the energy landscapes, remain unknown. Here, we investigate the association of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) proteins with different folding stabilities and aggregation propensities with condensates in cells, in vitro and by simulation. We find that irrespective of aggregation the folding stability determines the association of SOD1 with SGs in cells. In vitro and in silico experiments however suggest that the increased flexibility of the unfolded state constitutes only a minor driving force to associate with the dynamic biomolecular network of the condensate. Specific protein-protein interactions in the cytoplasm in comparison to SGs determine the partitioning of folding states between the respective phases during HS.

Stability Effect of Quinary Interactions Reversed by Single Point Mutations.

In cells, proteins are embedded in a crowded environment that controls their properties via manifold avenues including weak protein-macromolecule interactions. A molecular level understanding of these quinary interactions and their contribution to protein stability, function, and localization in the cell is central to modern structural biology. Using a mutational analysis to quantify the energetic contributions of single amino acids to the stability of the ALS related protein superoxide dismutase I (SOD1) in mammalian cells, we show that quinary interactions destabilize SOD1 by a similar energetic offset for most of the mutants, but there are notable exceptions: Mutants that alter its surface properties can even lead to a stabilization of the protein in the cell as compared to the test tube. In conclusion, quinary interactions can amplify and even reverse the mutational response of proteins, being a key aspect in pathogenic protein misfolding and aggregation.

Calcium ions in aqueous solutions: Accurate force field description aided by ab initio molecular dynamics and neutron scattering.

We present a combination of force field and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations together with neutron scattering experiments with isotopic substitution that aim at characterizing ion hydration and pairing in aqueous calcium chloride and formate/acetate solutions. Benchmarking against neutron scattering data on concentrated solutions together with ion pairing free energy profiles from ab initio molecular dynamics allows us to develop an accurate calcium force field which accounts in a mean-field way for electronic polarization effects via charge rescaling. This refined calcium parameterization is directly usable for standard molecular dynamics simulations of processes involving this key biological signaling ion.

Two-photon polarization microscopy reveals protein structure and function.

Membrane proteins are a large, diverse group of proteins, serving a multitude of cellular functions. They are difficult to study because of their requirement of a lipid membrane for function. Here we show that two-photon polarization microscopy can take advantage of the cell membrane requirement to yield insights into membrane protein structure and function, in living cells and organisms. The technique allows sensitive imaging of G-protein activation, changes in intracellular calcium concentration and other processes, and is not limited to membrane proteins. Conveniently, many suitable probes for two-photon polarization microscopy already exist.

Structural basis for allosteric regulation of human phosphofructokinase-1.

Phosphofructokinase-1 (PFK1) catalyzes the rate-limiting step of glycolysis, committing glucose to conversion into cellular energy. PFK1 is highly regulated to respond to the changing energy needs of the cell. In bacteria, the structural basis of PFK1 regulation is a textbook example of allostery; molecular signals of low and high cellular energy promote transition between an active R-state and inactive T-state conformation, respectively Little is known, however, about the structural basis for regulation of eukaryotic PFK1. Here, we determine structures of the human liver isoform of PFK1 (PFKL) in the R- and T-state by cryoEM, providing insight into eukaryotic PFK1 allosteric regulatory mechanisms. The T-state structure reveals conformational differences between the bacterial and eukaryotic enzyme, the mechanisms of allosteric inhibition by ATP binding at multiple sites, and an autoinhibitory role of the C-terminus in stabilizing the T-state. We also determine structures of PFKL filaments that define the mechanism of higher-order assembly and demonstrate that these structures are necessary for higher-order assembly of PFKL in cells.

Decoding the Role of the Global Proteome Dynamics for Cellular Thermal Stability.

Molecular mechanisms underlying the thermal response of cells remain elusive. On the basis of the recent result that the short-time diffusive dynamics of the Escherichia coli proteome is an excellent indicator of temperature-dependent bacterial metabolism and death, we used neutron scattering (NS) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the sub-nanosecond proteome mobility in psychro-, meso-, and hyperthermophilic bacteria over a wide temperature range. The magnitude of thermal fluctuations, measured by atomic mean square displacements, is similar among all studied bacteria at their respective thermal cell death. Global roto-translational motions turn out to be the main factor distinguishing the bacterial dynamical properties. We ascribe this behavior to the difference in the average proteome net charge, which becomes less negative for increasing bacterial thermal stability. We propose that the chemical-physical properties of the cytoplasm and the global dynamics of the resulting proteome are fine-tuned by evolution to uphold optimal thermal stability conditions.

Optimized OPEP Force Field for Simulation of Crowded Protein Solutions.

Macromolecular crowding has profound effects on the mobility of proteins, with strong implications on the rates of intracellular processes. To describe the dynamics of crowded environments, detailed molecular models are needed, capturing the structures and interactions arising in the crowded system. In this work, we present OPEPv7, which is a coarse-grained force field at amino-acid resolution, suited for rigid-body simulations of the structure and dynamics of crowded solutions formed by globular proteins. Using the OPEP protein model as a starting point, we have refined the intermolecular interactions to match the experimentally observed dynamical slowdown caused by crowding. The resulting force field successfully reproduces the diffusion slowdown in homogeneous and heterogeneous protein solutions at different crowding conditions. Coupled with the lattice Boltzmann technique, it allows the study of dynamical phenomena in protein assemblies and opens the way for the in silico rheology of protein solutions.

Diffusive Dynamics of Bacterial Proteome as a Proxy of Cell Death.

Temperature variations have a big impact on bacterial metabolism and death, yet an exhaustive molecular picture of these processes is still missing. For instance, whether thermal death is determined by the deterioration of the whole or a specific part of the proteome is hotly debated. Here, by monitoring the proteome dynamics of E. coli, we clearly show that only a minor fraction of the proteome unfolds at the cell death. First, we prove that the dynamical state of the E. coli proteome is an excellent proxy for temperature-dependent bacterial metabolism and death. The proteome diffusive dynamics peaks at about the bacterial optimal growth temperature, then a dramatic dynamical slowdown is observed that starts just below the cell's death temperature. Next, we show that this slowdown is caused by the unfolding of just a small fraction of proteins that establish an entangling interprotein network, dominated by hydrophobic interactions, across the cytoplasm. Finally, the deduced progress of the proteome unfolding and its diffusive dynamics are both key to correctly reproduce the E. coli growth rate.

Expertomica Cells: analysis of cell monolayer development.

UNLABELLED: Expertomica Cells is a program for the creation and analysis of pedigree plots from time-lapse micrographs of cell monolayers. It enables recording the basic events in a cell cycle, cell neighbourhoods and spatial migration. The output is both numeric and graphical. The software helps to lower main hurdles in the manual analysis of cell monolayer development to practical limits; it reduces the operator processing time of typical experiment containing 5000 consecutive images from the usual 3 months to 3-10 h. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Freely available on the web at http://www.expertomicacells.tk or http://www.expertomicacells.wu.cz. The source code is implemented in JAVA 6 and supported by Linux, Mac and MS Windows. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data available at Bioinformatics online.

Computational Insights into the Unfolding of a Destabilized Superoxide Dismutase 1 Mutant.

In this work, we investigate the ß-barrel of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) in a mutated form, the isoleucine 35 to alanine (I35A) mutant, commonly used as a model system to decipher the role of the full-length apoSOD1 protein in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It is known from experiments that the mutation reduces the stability of the SOD1 barrel and makes it largely unfolded in the cell at 37 degrees Celsius. We deploy state-of-the-art computational machinery to examine the thermal destabilization of the I35A mutant by comparing two widely used force fields, Amber a99SB-disp and CHARMM36m. We find that only the latter force field, when combined with the Replica Exchange with Solute Scaling (REST2) approach, reproduces semi-quantitatively the experimentally observed shift in the melting between the original and the mutated SOD1 barrel. In addition, we analyze the unfolding process and the conformational landscape of the mutant, finding these largely similar to those of the wildtype. Nevertheless, we detect an increased presence of partially misfolded states at ambient temperatures. These states, featuring conformational changes in the region of the ß-strands ß4-ß6, might provide a pathway for nonnative aggregation.

Stabilizing or Destabilizing: Simulations of Chymotrypsin Inhibitor 2 under Crowding Reveal Existence of a Crossover Temperature.

The effect of macromolecular crowding on the stability of proteins can change with temperature. This dependence might reveal a delicate balance between two factors: the entropic excluded volume and the stability-modulating quinary interactions. Here we computationally investigate the thermal stability of the native state of chymotrypsin inhibitor 2 (CI2), which was previously shown by experiments to be destabilized by protein crowders at room temperature. Mimicking experimental conditions, our enhanced-sampling atomistic simulations of CI2 surrounded by lysozyme and bovine serum albumin reproduce this destabilization but also provide evidence of a crossover temperature above which lysozyme is found to become stabilizing, as previously predicted by analysis of thermodynamic data. We relate this crossover to the different CI2-crowder interactions and the local packing experienced by CI2. In fact, we clearly show that the pronounced stabilization induced by lysozyme at high temperatures stems from the tight local packing created around CI2 by this smaller crowder.

Quantitative linear dichroism imaging of molecular processes in living cells made simple by open software tools.

Fluorescence-detected linear dichroism microscopy allows observing various molecular processes in living cells, as well as obtaining quantitative information on orientation of fluorescent molecules associated with cellular features. Such information can provide insights into protein structure, aid in development of genetically encoded probes, and allow determinations of lipid membrane properties. However, quantitating and interpreting linear dichroism in biological systems has been laborious and unreliable. Here we present a set of open source ImageJ-based software tools that allow fast and easy linear dichroism visualization and quantitation, as well as extraction of quantitative information on molecular orientations, even in living systems. The tools were tested on model synthetic lipid vesicles and applied to a variety of biological systems, including observations of conformational changes during G-protein signaling in living cells, using fluorescent proteins. Our results show that our tools and model systems are applicable to a wide range of molecules and polarization-resolved microscopy techniques, and represent a significant step towards making polarization microscopy a mainstream tool of biological imaging.

The Unfolding Journey of Superoxide Dismutase 1 Barrels under Crowding: Atomistic Simulations Shed Light on Intermediate States and Their Interactions with Crowders.

The thermal stability of the superoxide dismutase 1 protein in a crowded solution is investigated by performing enhanced sampling molecular simulations. By complementing thermal unfolding experiments done close to physiological conditions (200 mg/mL), we provide evidence that the presence of the protein crowder bovine serum albumin in different packing states has only a minor, and essentially destabilizing, effect. The finding that quinary interactions counteract the pure stabilization contribution stemming from excluded volume is rationalized here by exploring the SOD1 unfolding mechanism in microscopic detail. In agreement with recent experiments, we unveil the importance of intermediate unfolded states as well as the correlation between protein conformations and local packing with the crowders. This link helps us to elucidate why certain SOD1 mutations involved in the ALS disease reverse the stability effect of the intracellular environment.

Protein thermal stability.

Proteins, in general, fold to a well-organized three-dimensional structure in order to function. The stability of this functional shape can be perturbed by external environmental conditions, such as temperature. Understanding the molecular factors underlying the resistance of proteins to the thermal stress has important consequences. First of all, it can aid the design of thermostable enzymes able to perform efficient catalysis in the high-temperature regime. Second, it is an essential brick of knowledge required to decipher the evolutionary pathways of life adaptation on Earth. Thanks to the development of atomistic simulations and ad hoc enhanced sampling techniques, it is now possible to investigate this problem in silico, and therefore provide support to experiments. After having described the methodological aspects, the chapter proposes an extended discussion on two problems. First, we focus on thermophilic proteins, a perfect model to address the issue of thermal stability and molecular evolution. Second, we discuss the issue of how protein thermal stability is affected by crowded in vivo-like conditions.

Modelling lipid systems in fluid with Lattice Boltzmann Molecular Dynamics simulations and hydrodynamics.

In this work we present the coupling between Dry Martini, an efficient implicit solvent coarse-grained model for lipids, and the Lattice Boltzmann Molecular Dynamics (LBMD) simulation technique in order to include naturally hydrodynamic interactions in implicit solvent simulations of lipid systems. After validating the implementation of the model, we explored several systems where the action of a perturbing fluid plays an important role. Namely, we investigated the role of an external shear flow on the dynamics of a vesicle, the dynamics of substrate release under shear, and inquired the dynamics of proteins and substrates confined inside the core of a vesicle. Our methodology enables future exploration of a large variety of biological entities and processes involving lipid systems at the mesoscopic scale where hydrodynamics plays an essential role, e.g. by modulating the migration of proteins in the proximity of membranes, the dynamics of vesicle-based drug delivery systems, or, more generally, the behaviour of proteins in cellular compartments.

Calcium Sensing by Recoverin: Effect of Protein Conformation on Ion Affinity.

The detailed functional mechanism of recoverin, which acts as a myristoyl switch at the rod outer-segment disk membrane, is elucidated by direct and replica-exchange molecular dynamics. In accord with NMR structural evidence and calcium binding assays, simulations point to the key role of enhanced calcium binding to the EF3 loop of the semiopen state of recoverin as compared to the closed state. This 2-4-order decrease in calcium dissociation constant stabilizes the semiopen state in response to the increase of cytosolic calcium concentration in the vicinity of recoverin. A second calcium ion then binds to the EF2 loop and, consequently, the structure of the protein changes from the semiopen to the open state. The latter has the myristoyl chain extruded to the cytosol, ready to act as a membrane anchor of recoverin.

Membrane Binding of Recoverin: From Mechanistic Understanding to Biological Functionality.

Recoverin is a neuronal calcium sensor involved in vision adaptation that reversibly associates with cellular membranes via its calcium-activated myristoyl switch. While experimental evidence shows that the myristoyl group significantly enhances membrane affinity of this protein, molecular details of the binding process are still under debate. Here, we present results of extensive molecular dynamics simulations of recoverin in the proximity of a phospholipid bilayer. We capture multiple events of spontaneous membrane insertion of the myristoyl moiety and confirm its critical role in the membrane binding. Moreover, we observe that the binding strongly depends on the conformation of the N-terminal domain. We propose that a suitable conformation of the N-terminal domain can be stabilized by the disordered C-terminal segment or by binding of the target enzyme, i.e., rhodopsin kinase. Finally, we find that the presence of negatively charged lipids in the bilayer stabilizes a physiologically functional orientation of the membrane-bound recoverin.

Transmembrane Potential Modeling: Comparison between Methods of Constant Electric Field and Ion Imbalance.

Two approaches for modeling of the transmembrane potential, as present in all eukaryotic cells, are examined in detail and compared with each other. One approach uses an externally applied electric field, whereas the other maintains an imbalance of ions on the two sides of a membrane. We demonstrate that both methods provide converged results concerning structural parameters of the membrane which are practically indistinguishable from each other, at least for monovalent ions. Effects of the electric field on the detailed molecular structure of the phospholipid bilayer are also presented and discussed. In addition, we achieve a considerable speed-up of the underlying molecular dynamics simulations by implementing the virtual interaction sites method for the Slipids force field.