Cold denaturation induced helix-to-helix transition and its implication to activity of helical antifreeze protein

Number of Hydrogen Bonds per Unit Solvent Accessible Surface Area: A Descriptor of Functional States of Proteins

Proteins function close to native and near-native conformations. These states are evolutionarily selected to ensure the effect of mutations is minimized. The structural organization of a protein is hierarchical and modular, which reduces the dimensionality of the configurational space of the native states. Thus, finding appropriate descriptors that define the native state among all possible states of a protein is a problem of immense interest. The present study explores the correlation between solvent accessible surface areas (SASAs) and different intraprotein as well as protein-water hydrogen bonds of 55 single-chain globular proteins from four different structural classes (all α, all β, α+β, and α/β), 16 multichain proteins, and 4 macromolecular complexes. A systematic analysis of the solvent accessible surface area and intraprotein and protein-water hydrogen bonds suggests a linear relationship between SASAs and hydrogen bonds. The number of protein-water hydrogen bonds per unit SASA ranges from 3 to 4 for all the different structural protein classes. In contrast, the number of intramolecular hydrogen bonds per unit SASA, including the mainchain-mainchain, mainchain-sidechain, and sidechain-sidechain, varies between 0.75 to 2. The solvation free energy of a protein linearly decreases with SASA. Our study also shows that the solvation free energy/SASA varies from -75 to -105 kJ mol^-1 nm^-2 across all the native states studied here. The number conservancy of intraprotein hydrogen bonds per unit SASA possibly imparts structural stability to the native structure. On the other hand, 3-4 protein-water hydrogen bonds per unit SASA are possibly required to maintain a balance between the solubility and functionality of the native states. This study provides a basis for synthetic biologists to design new folds with improved functionality.

Molecular Factors of Ice Growth Inhibition for Hyperactive and Globular Antifreeze Proteins: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The molecular mechanism behind the ice growth inhibition by antifreeze proteins (AFPs) is yet to be understood completely. Also, what physical parameters differentiate between the AFP and non-AFP are largely unknown. Thus, to get an atomistic overview of the differential antifreeze activities of different classes of AFPs, we have studied ice growth from different ice surfaces in the presence of a moderately active globular type III AFP and a hyperactive spruce budworm (sbw) AFP. Results are compared with the observations of ice growth simulations in the presence of topologically similar non-AFPs using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. Simulation data suggest that the ice surface coverage is a critical factor in ice growth inhibition. Due to the presence of an ice binding surface (IBS), AFPs form a high affinity complex with ice, accompanied by a transition of hydration water around the IBS from clathrate-like to ice-like. Several residues around the periphery of the IBS anchor the AFP to the curved ice surface mediated by multiple strong hydrogen bonds, stabilizing the complex immensely. In the high surface coverage regime, the slow unbinding kinetics dominates over the ice growth kinetics and thus facilitates the ice growth inhibition. Due to the non-availability of a proper IBS, non-AFPs form a low-affinity complex with the growing ice surface. As a result, the non-AFPs are continuously repelled by the surface. If the concentration of AFPs is low, then the effective surface coverage is reduced significantly. In this low surface coverage regime, AFPs can also behave like impurities and are engulfed by the growing ice crystal.

Freezing-induced denaturation of myofibrillar proteins in frozen meat

Freezing is commonly used to extend the shelf life of meat and meat products but may impact the overall quality of those products by inducing structural changes in myofibrillar proteins (MPs) through denaturation, chemical modification, and encouraging protein aggregation. This review covers the effect of freezing on the denaturation of MPs in terms of the effects of ice crystallization on solute concentrations, cold denaturation, and protein oxidation. Freezing-induced denaturation of MPs begins with ice crystallization in extracellular spaces and changes in solute concentrations in the unfrozen water fraction. At typical temperatures for freezing meat (lower than -18 °C), cold denaturation of proteins occurs, accompanied by an alteration in their secondary and tertiary structure. Moreover, the disruption of muscle cells triggers the release of cellular enzymes, accelerating protein degradation and oxidation. To minimize severe deterioration during the freezing and frozen storage of meat, there is a vital need to use an appropriate freezing temperature below the glass transition temperature and to avoid temperature fluctuations during storage to prevent recrystallization. Such an understanding of MP denaturation can be applied to determine the optimum freezing conditions for meat products with highly retained sensory, nutritional, and functional qualities.

Recent advances of bio-inspired anti-icing surfaces

The need for improved anti-icing surfaces is the demand of the time and closely related to many important aspects of our lives as surface icing threatens not only industrial production but also human safety. Freezing on a cold surface is usually a heterogeneous nucleation process induced by the substrate. Creating an anti-icing surface is mainly achieved by changing surface morphology and chemistry to regulate the interaction between the surface and the water/ice to inhibit freezing on the surface. In this paper, recent research progress in the creation of biomimetic anti-icing surfaces is reviewed. Firstly, basic strategies of bionic anti-icing are introduced, and then bionic anti-icing surface strategies are reviewed according to four aspects: the process of ice formation, including condensate self-removing, inhibiting ice nucleation, reducing ice adhesion, and melting accumulated ice on the surface. The remaining challenges and the direction of future development of biomimetic anti-icing surfaces are also discussed.

Stabilization of enzymes via immobilization: Multipoint covalent attachment and other stabilization strategies

The use of enzymes in industrial processes requires the improvement of their features in many instances. Enzyme immobilization, a requirement to facilitate the recovery and reuse of these water-soluble catalysts, is one of the tools that researchers may utilize to improve many of their properties. This review is focused on how enzyme immobilization may improve enzyme stability. Starting from the stabilization effects that an enzyme may experience by the mere fact of being inside a solid particle, we detail other possibilities to stabilize enzymes: generation of favorable enzyme environments, prevention of enzyme subunit dissociation in multimeric enzymes, generation of more stable enzyme conformations, or enzyme rigidification via multipoint covalent attachment. In this last point, we will discuss the features of an "ideal" immobilization protocol to maximize the intensity of the enzyme-support interactions. The most interesting active groups in the support (glutaraldehyde, epoxide, glyoxyl and vinyl sulfone) will be also presented, discussing their main properties and uses. Some instances in which the number of enzyme-support bonds is not directly related to a higher stabilization will be also presented. Finally, the possibility of coupling site-directed mutagenesis or chemical modification to get a more intense multipoint covalent immobilization will be discussed.