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Napoletano S, Battista E, Netti PA, Causa F. MicroLOCK: Highly stable microgel biosensor using locked nucleic acids as bioreceptors for sensitive and selective detection of let-7a. Biosens Bioelectron 2024; 260:116406. [PMID: 38805889 DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2024.116406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2024] [Revised: 05/16/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024]
Abstract
Chemically modified oligonucleotides can solve biosensing issues for the development of capture probes, antisense, CRISPR/Cas, and siRNA, by enhancing their duplex-forming ability, their stability against enzymatic degradation, and their specificity for targets with high sequence similarity as microRNA families. However, the use of modified oligonucleotides such as locked nucleic acids (LNA) for biosensors is still limited by hurdles in design and from performances on the material interface. Here we developed a fluorogenic biosensor for non-coding RNAs, represented by polymeric PEG microgels conjugated with molecular beacons (MB) modified with locked nucleic acids (MicroLOCK). By 3D modeling and computational analysis, we designed molecular beacons (MB) inserting spot-on LNAs for high specificity among targets with high sequence similarity (95%). MicroLOCK can reversibly detect microRNA targets in a tiny amount of biological sample (2 μL) at 25 °C with a higher sensitivity (LOD 1.3 fM) without any reverse transcription or amplification. MicroLOCK can hybridize the target with fast kinetic (about 30 min), high duplex stability without interferences from the polymer interface, showing high signal-to-noise ratio (up to S/N = 7.3). MicroLOCK also demonstrated excellent resistance to highly nuclease-rich environments, in real samples. These findings represent a great breakthrough for using the LNA in developing low-cost biosensing approaches and can be applied not only for nucleic acids and protein detection but also for real-time imaging and quantitative assessment of gene targeting both in vitro and in vivo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabrina Napoletano
- Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Biomaterials (CRIB), Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125, Naples, Italy; Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Healthcare@CRIB, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Largo Barsanti e Matteucci 53, 80125, Naples, Italy
| | - Edmondo Battista
- Department of Innovative Technologies in Medicine & Dentistry, University "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Paolo Antonio Netti
- Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Biomaterials (CRIB), Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125, Naples, Italy; Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica del Materiali e della Produzione Industriale (DICMAPI), University "Federico II", Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125, Naples, Italy; Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Healthcare@CRIB, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Largo Barsanti e Matteucci 53, 80125, Naples, Italy
| | - Filippo Causa
- Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Biomaterials (CRIB), Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125, Naples, Italy; Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica del Materiali e della Produzione Industriale (DICMAPI), University "Federico II", Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125, Naples, Italy; Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Healthcare@CRIB, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Largo Barsanti e Matteucci 53, 80125, Naples, Italy.
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Malashin IP, Tynchenko VS, Nelyub VA, Borodulin AS, Gantimurov AP. Estimation and Prediction of the Polymers' Physical Characteristics Using the Machine Learning Models. Polymers (Basel) 2023; 16:115. [PMID: 38201778 PMCID: PMC10780762 DOI: 10.3390/polym16010115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2023] [Revised: 12/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024] Open
Abstract
This article investigates the utility of machine learning (ML) methods for predicting and analyzing the diverse physical characteristics of polymers. Leveraging a rich dataset of polymers' characteristics, the study encompasses an extensive range of polymer properties, spanning compressive and tensile strength to thermal and electrical behaviors. Using various regression methods like Ensemble, Tree-based, Regularization, and Distance-based, the research undergoes thorough evaluation using the most common quality metrics. As a result of a series of experimental studies on the selection of effective model parameters, those that provide a high-quality solution to the stated problem were found. The best results were achieved by Random Forest with the highest R2 scores of 0.71, 0.73, and 0.88 for glass transition, thermal decomposition, and melting temperatures, respectively. The outcomes are intricately compared, providing valuable insights into the efficiency of distinct ML approaches in predicting polymer properties. Unknown values for each characteristic were predicted, and a method validation was performed by training on the predicted values, comparing the results with the specified variance values of each characteristic. The research not only advances our comprehension of polymer physics but also contributes to informed model selection and optimization for materials science applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Pavlovich Malashin
- Artificial Intelligence Technology Scientific and Education Center, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, 105005 Moscow, Russia; (V.A.N.); (A.S.B.); (A.P.G.)
| | - Vadim Sergeevich Tynchenko
- Artificial Intelligence Technology Scientific and Education Center, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, 105005 Moscow, Russia; (V.A.N.); (A.S.B.); (A.P.G.)
- Information-Control Systems Department, Institute of Computer Science and Telecommunications, Reshetnev Siberian State University of Science and Technology, 660037 Krasnoyarsk, Russia
- Department of Technological Machines and Equipment of Oil and Gas Complex, School of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Siberian Federal University, 660041 Krasnoyarsk, Russia
| | - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Nelyub
- Artificial Intelligence Technology Scientific and Education Center, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, 105005 Moscow, Russia; (V.A.N.); (A.S.B.); (A.P.G.)
| | - Aleksei Sergeevich Borodulin
- Artificial Intelligence Technology Scientific and Education Center, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, 105005 Moscow, Russia; (V.A.N.); (A.S.B.); (A.P.G.)
| | - Andrei Pavlovich Gantimurov
- Artificial Intelligence Technology Scientific and Education Center, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, 105005 Moscow, Russia; (V.A.N.); (A.S.B.); (A.P.G.)
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Jain A, Jain T, Mishra GK, Chandrakar K, Mukherjee K, Tiwari SP. Molecular characterization, putative structure and function, and expression profile of OAS1 gene in the endometrium of goats (Capra hircus). Reprod Biol 2023; 23:100760. [PMID: 37023663 DOI: 10.1016/j.repbio.2023.100760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2022] [Revised: 02/18/2023] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 04/07/2023]
Abstract
An interferon-inducible gene, 2'-5'-oligoadenylate synthetase-1 (OAS1), plays an essential role in uterine receptivity and conceptus development by controlling cell growth and differentiation in addition to anti-viral activities. As OAS1 gene has not yet been studied in caprine (cp), so present study was designed with the aim to amplify, sequence, characterize and in-silico analyze the coding sequence of the cpOAS1. Further, expression profile of cpOAS1 was performed by quantitative real-time PCR and western blot in the endometrium of pregnant and cyclic does. An 890 bp fragment of the cpOAS1 was amplified and sequenced. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences revealed 99.6-72.3% identities with that of ruminants and non-ruminants. A constructed phylogenetic tree revealed that Ovis aries and Capra hircus differ from large ungulates. Various post-translational modifications (PTMs), 21 phosphorylation, two sumoylation, eight cysteines and 14 immunogenic sites were found in the cpOAS1. The domain, OAS1_C, is found in the cpOAS1 which carries anti-viral enzymatic activity, cell growth, and differentiation. Among the interacted proteins with cpOAS1, Mx1 and ISG17 well-known proteins are found that have anti-viral activity and play an important role during early pregnancy in ruminants. CpOAS1 protein (42/46 kDa and/or 69/71 kDa) was detected in the endometrium of pregnant and cyclic does. Both cpOAS1 mRNA and protein were expressed maximally (P<0.05) in the endometrium during pregnancy as compared to cyclic does. In conclusion, the cpOAS1 sequence is almost similar in structure and probably in function also to other species along with its higher expression during early pregnancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asit Jain
- Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Dau Shri Vasudev Chandrakar Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya (DSVCKV), Anjora, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India.
| | - Tripti Jain
- Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Dau Shri Vasudev Chandrakar Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya (DSVCKV), Anjora, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India
| | - Girish Kumar Mishra
- Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Dau Shri Vasudev Chandrakar Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya (DSVCKV), Anjora, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India
| | - Khushboo Chandrakar
- Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Dau Shri Vasudev Chandrakar Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya (DSVCKV), Anjora, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India
| | - Kishore Mukherjee
- Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Dau Shri Vasudev Chandrakar Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya (DSVCKV), Anjora, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India
| | - Sita Prasad Tiwari
- Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Dau Shri Vasudev Chandrakar Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya (DSVCKV), Anjora, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India
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Wang J, Sha CM, Dokholyan NV. Combining Experimental Restraints and RNA 3D Structure Prediction in RNA Nanotechnology. Methods Mol Biol 2023; 2709:51-64. [PMID: 37572272 PMCID: PMC10680996 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3417-2_3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/14/2023]
Abstract
Precise RNA tertiary structure prediction can aid in the design of RNA nanoparticles. However, most existing RNA tertiary structure prediction methods are limited to small RNAs with relatively simple secondary structures. Large RNA molecules usually have complex secondary structures, including multibranched loops and pseudoknots, allowing for highly flexible RNA geometries and multiple stable states. Various experiments and bioinformatics analyses can often provide information about the distance between atoms (or residues) in RNA, which can be used to guide the prediction of RNA tertiary structure. In this chapter, we will introduce a platform, iFoldNMR, that can incorporate non-exchangeable imino protons resonance data from NMR as restraints for RNA 3D structure prediction. We also introduce an algorithm, DVASS, which optimizes distance restraints for better RNA 3D structure prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Wang
- Department of Pharmacology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA
| | - Congzhou M Sha
- Department of Pharmacology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA
- Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Penn State University, State College, PA, USA
| | - Nikolay V Dokholyan
- Department of Pharmacology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.
- Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Penn State University, State College, PA, USA.
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.
- Department of Chemistry, Penn State University, State College, PA, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Penn State University, State College, PA, USA.
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5
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Zhou L, Wang X, Yu S, Tan YL, Tan ZJ. FebRNA: An automated fragment-ensemble-based model for building RNA 3D structures. Biophys J 2022; 121:3381-3392. [PMID: 35978551 PMCID: PMC9515226 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022.08.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2022] [Revised: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Knowledge of RNA three-dimensional (3D) structures is critical to understanding the important biological functions of RNAs. Although various structure prediction models have been developed, the high-accuracy predictions of RNA 3D structures are still limited to the RNAs with short lengths or with simple topology. In this work, we proposed a new model, namely FebRNA, for building RNA 3D structures through fragment assembly based on coarse-grained (CG) fragment ensembles. Specifically, FebRNA is composed of four processes: establishing the library of different types of non-redundant CG fragment ensembles regardless of the sequences, building CG 3D structure ensemble through fragment assembly, identifying top-scored CG structures through a specific CG scoring function, and rebuilding the all-atom structures from the top-scored CG ones. Extensive examination against different types of RNA structures indicates that FebRNA consistently gives the reliable predictions on RNA 3D structures, including pseudoknots, three-way junctions, four-way and five-way junctions, and RNAs in the RNA-Puzzles. FebRNA is available on the Web site: https://github.com/Tan-group/FebRNA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Zhou
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro & Nano-structures of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Xunxun Wang
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro & Nano-structures of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Shixiong Yu
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro & Nano-structures of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Ya-Lan Tan
- Research Center of Nonlinear Science, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China.
| | - Zhi-Jie Tan
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro & Nano-structures of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
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MutS recognition of mismatches within primed DNA replication intermediates. DNA Repair (Amst) 2022; 119:103392. [PMID: 36095926 DOI: 10.1016/j.dnarep.2022.103392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2022] [Revised: 08/23/2022] [Accepted: 08/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
MutS initiates mismatch repair by recognizing mismatches in newly replicated DNA. Specific interactions between MutS and mismatches within double-stranded DNA promote ADP-ATP exchange and a conformational change into a sliding clamp. Here, we demonstrated that MutS from Pseudomonas aeruginosa associates with primed DNA replication intermediates. The predicted structure of this MutS-DNA complex revealed a new DNA binding site, in which Asn 279 and Arg 272 appeared to directly interact with the 3'-OH terminus of primed DNA. Mutation of these residues resulted in a noticeable defect in the interaction of MutS with primed DNA substrates. Remarkably, MutS interaction with a mismatch within primed DNA induced a compaction of the protein structure and impaired the formation of an ATP-bound sliding clamp. Our findings reveal a novel DNA binding mode, conformational change and intramolecular signaling for MutS recognition of mismatches within primed DNA structures.
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7
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Raschke S, Heuer A. Frame-guided assembly from a theoretical perspective. J Chem Phys 2022; 156:164905. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0084210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The molecular self-assembly of various structures such as micelles and vesicles has been the subject of comprehensive studies. Recently, a new approach to design these structures, the frame-guided assembly, has been developed to progress towards fabrics of predefined shape and size, following an initially provided frame of guiding elements. Here we study frame-guided assembly into a two-dimensional membrane via computer simulations, based on a single-bead coarse grained surfactant model in continuous space. In agreement with the experiment the assembly process already starts for surfactant concentrations below the critical micelle concentration. Furthermore, upon increasing temperature the formation process gets more delocalized. Additionally, the assembly process of the resulting membrane plane is modelled by a lattice gas model. It displays a similar phenomenology but additionally allows the derivation of analytical mean-field predictions. In this way a fundamental understanding of frame-guided assembly can be gained.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Raschke
- Institute for Physical Chemistry, WWU Münster, Germany
| | - Andreas Heuer
- Physical Chemistry, Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster Fachbereich 12 Chemie und Pharmazie, Germany
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8
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Kameda T, Awazu A, Togashi Y. Molecular dynamics analysis of biomolecular systems including nucleic acids. Biophys Physicobiol 2022; 19:e190027. [DOI: 10.2142/biophysico.bppb-v19.0027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2022] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
| | - Akinori Awazu
- Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University
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Bin Faheem A, Kim JY, Bae SE, Lee KK. Efficient parameterization of intermolecular force fields for molecular dynamics simulations via genetic algorithms. J Mol Liq 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2021.116579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
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10
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Predicting RNA Scaffolds with a Hybrid Method of Vfold3D and VfoldLA. Methods Mol Biol 2021. [PMID: 34086269 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1499-0_1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
The ever-increasing discoveries of noncoding RNA functions draw a strong demand for RNA structure determination from the sequence. In recently years, computational studies for RNA structures, at both the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional levels, led to several highly promising new developments. In this chapter, we describe a hybrid method, which combines the motif template-based Vfold3D model and the loop template-based VfoldLA model, to predict RNA 3D structures. The main emphasis is placed on the definition of motifs and loops, the treatment of no-template motifs, and the 3D structure assembly from templates of motifs and loops. For illustration, we use the ZIKV xrRNA1 as an example to show the template-based prediction of RNA 3D structures from the 2D structure. The web server for the hybrid model is freely accessible at http://rna.physics.missouri.edu/vfold3D2 .
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Sitkov N, Zimina T, Kolobov A, Karasev V, Romanov A, Luchinin V, Kaplun D. Toward Development of a Label-Free Detection Technique for Microfluidic Fluorometric Peptide-Based Biosensor Systems. MICROMACHINES 2021; 12:691. [PMID: 34199321 PMCID: PMC8232019 DOI: 10.3390/mi12060691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Revised: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
The problems of chronic or noncommunicable diseases (NCD) that now kill around 40 million people each year require multiparametric combinatorial diagnostics for the selection of effective treatment tactics. This could be implemented using the biosensor principle based on peptide aptamers for spatial recognition of corresponding protein markers of diseases in biological fluids. In this paper, a low-cost label-free principle of biomarker detection using a biosensor system based on fluorometric registration of the target proteins bound to peptide aptamers was investigated. The main detection principle considered includes the re-emission of the natural fluorescence of selectively bound protein markers into a longer-wavelength radiation easily detectable by common charge-coupled devices (CCD) using a specific luminophore. Implementation of this type of detection system demands the reduction of all types of stray light and background fluorescence of construction materials and aptamers. The latter was achieved by careful selection of materials and design of peptide aptamers with substituted aromatic amino acid residues and considering troponin T, troponin I, and bovine serum albumin as an example. The peptide aptamers for troponin T were designed in silico using the «Protein 3D» (SPB ETU, St. Petersburg, Russia) software. The luminophore was selected from the line of ZnS-based solid-state compounds. The test microfluidic system was arranged as a flow through a massive of four working chambers for immobilization of peptide aptamers, coupled with the optical detection system, based on thick film technology. The planar optical setup of the biosensor registration system was arranged as an excitation-emission cascade including 280 nm ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diode (LED), polypropylene (PP) UV transparent film, proteins layer, glass filter, luminophore layer, and CCD sensor. A laboratory sample has been created.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nikita Sitkov
- Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics, Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”, 197376 Saint Petersburg, Russia; (T.Z.); (V.K.); (A.R.); (V.L.)
| | - Tatiana Zimina
- Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics, Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”, 197376 Saint Petersburg, Russia; (T.Z.); (V.K.); (A.R.); (V.L.)
| | - Alexander Kolobov
- Institute of Highly Pure Biopreparations, 197110 Saint Petersburg, Russia;
| | - Vladimir Karasev
- Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics, Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”, 197376 Saint Petersburg, Russia; (T.Z.); (V.K.); (A.R.); (V.L.)
| | - Alexander Romanov
- Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics, Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”, 197376 Saint Petersburg, Russia; (T.Z.); (V.K.); (A.R.); (V.L.)
| | - Viktor Luchinin
- Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics, Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”, 197376 Saint Petersburg, Russia; (T.Z.); (V.K.); (A.R.); (V.L.)
| | - Dmitry Kaplun
- Department of Automation and Control Processes, Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”, 197376 Saint Petersburg, Russia
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Perry SL, Sing CE. 100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: Opportunities in the Physics of Sequence-Defined Polymers. ACS Macro Lett 2020; 9:216-225. [PMID: 35638672 DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.0c00002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Polymer science has been driven by ever-increasing molecular complexity, as polymer synthesis expands an already-vast palette of chemical and architectural parameter space. Copolymers represent a key example, where simple homopolymers have given rise to random, alternating, gradient, and block copolymers. Polymer physics has provided the insight needed to explore this monomer sequence parameter space. The future of polymer science, however, must contend with further increases in monomer precision, as this class of macromolecules moves ever closer to the sequence-monodisperse polymers that are the workhorses of biology. The advent of sequence-defined polymers gives rise to opportunities for material design, with increasing levels of chemical information being incorporated into long-chain molecules; however, this also raises questions that polymer physics must address. What properties uniquely emerge from sequence-definition? Is this circumstance-dependent? How do we define and think about sequence dispersity? How do we think about a hierarchy of sequence effects? Are more sophisticated characterization methods, as well as theoretical and computational tools, needed to understand this class of macromolecules? The answers to these questions touch on many difficult scientific challenges, setting the stage for a rich future for sequence-defined polymers in polymer physics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah L. Perry
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts−Amherst, 686 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Charles E. Sing
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, 600 South Mathews Avenue Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
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Xiao Q, Li W, Kai Y, Chen P, Zhang J, Wang B. Occurrence prediction of pests and diseases in cotton on the basis of weather factors by long short term memory network. BMC Bioinformatics 2019; 20:688. [PMID: 31874611 PMCID: PMC6929544 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-019-3262-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The occurrence of cotton pests and diseases has always been an important factor affecting the total cotton production. Cotton has a great dependence on environmental factors during its growth, especially climate change. In recent years, machine learning and especially deep learning methods have been widely used in many fields and have achieved good results. Methods First, this papaer used the common Aprioro algorithm to find the association rules between weather factors and the occurrence of cotton pests. Then, in this paper, the problem of predicting the occurrence of pests and diseases is formulated as time series prediction, and an LSTM-based method was developed to solve the problem. Results The association analysis reveals that moderate temperature, humid air, low wind spreed and rain fall in autumn and winter are more likely to occur cotton pests and diseases. The discovery was then used to predict the occurrence of pests and diseases. Experimental results showed that LSTM performs well on the prediction of occurrence of pests and diseases in cotton fields, and yields the Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.97. Conclusion Suitable temperature, humidity, low rainfall, low wind speed, suitable sunshine time and low evaporation are more likely to cause cotton pests and diseases. Based on these associations as well as historical weather and pest records, LSTM network is a good predictor for future pest and disease occurrences. Moreover, compared to the traditional machine learning models (i.e., SVM and Random Forest), the LSTM network performs the best.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qingxin Xiao
- Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
| | - Weilu Li
- Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
| | - Yuanzhong Kai
- School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
| | - Peng Chen
- Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China. .,School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma'anshan, 243032, China.
| | - Jun Zhang
- School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
| | - Bing Wang
- School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma'anshan, 243032, China.
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14
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Nithin C, Mukherjee S, Bahadur RP. A structure-based model for the prediction of protein-RNA binding affinity. RNA (NEW YORK, N.Y.) 2019; 25:1628-1645. [PMID: 31395671 PMCID: PMC6859855 DOI: 10.1261/rna.071779.119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2019] [Accepted: 08/05/2019] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Protein-RNA recognition is highly affinity-driven and regulates a wide array of cellular functions. In this study, we have curated a binding affinity data set of 40 protein-RNA complexes, for which at least one unbound partner is available in the docking benchmark. The data set covers a wide affinity range of eight orders of magnitude as well as four different structural classes. On average, we find the complexes with single-stranded RNA have the highest affinity, whereas the complexes with the duplex RNA have the lowest. Nevertheless, free energy gain upon binding is the highest for the complexes with ribosomal proteins and the lowest for the complexes with tRNA with an average of -5.7 cal/mol/Å2 in the entire data set. We train regression models to predict the binding affinity from the structural and physicochemical parameters of protein-RNA interfaces. The best fit model with the lowest maximum error is provided with three interface parameters: relative hydrophobicity, conformational change upon binding and relative hydration pattern. This model has been used for predicting the binding affinity on a test data set, generated using mutated structures of yeast aspartyl-tRNA synthetase, for which experimentally determined ΔG values of 40 mutations are available. The predicted ΔGempirical values highly correlate with the experimental observations. The data set provided in this study should be useful for further development of the binding affinity prediction methods. Moreover, the model developed in this study enhances our understanding on the structural basis of protein-RNA binding affinity and provides a platform to engineer protein-RNA interfaces with desired affinity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chandran Nithin
- Computational Structural Biology Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
| | - Sunandan Mukherjee
- Computational Structural Biology Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
| | - Ranjit Prasad Bahadur
- Computational Structural Biology Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
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15
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Jin L, Tan YL, Wu Y, Wang X, Shi YZ, Tan ZJ. Structure folding of RNA kissing complexes in salt solutions: predicting 3D structure, stability, and folding pathway. RNA (NEW YORK, N.Y.) 2019; 25:1532-1548. [PMID: 31391217 PMCID: PMC6795135 DOI: 10.1261/rna.071662.119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Accepted: 08/02/2019] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
RNA kissing complexes are essential for genomic RNA dimerization and regulation of gene expression, and their structures and stability are critical to their biological functions. In this work, we used our previously developed coarse-grained model with an implicit structure-based electrostatic potential to predict three-dimensional (3D) structures and stability of RNA kissing complexes in salt solutions. For extensive RNA kissing complexes, our model shows great reliability in predicting 3D structures from their sequences, and our additional predictions indicate that the model can capture the dependence of 3D structures of RNA kissing complexes on monovalent/divalent ion concentrations. Moreover, the comparisons with extensive experimental data show that the model can make reliable predictions on the stability for various RNA kissing complexes over wide ranges of monovalent/divalent ion concentrations. Notably, for RNA kissing complexes, our further analyses show the important contribution of coaxial stacking to the 3D structures and stronger stability than the corresponding kissing-interface duplexes at high salts. Furthermore, our comprehensive analyses for RNA kissing complexes reveal that the thermally folding pathway for a complex sequence is mainly determined by the relative stability of two possible folded states of kissing complex and extended duplex, which can be significantly modulated by its sequence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Jin
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Ya-Lan Tan
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Yao Wu
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Xunxun Wang
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
| | - Ya-Zhou Shi
- Research Center of Nonlinear Science, School of Mathematics and Computer Science, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China
| | - Zhi-Jie Tan
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
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16
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Abstract
The three-dimensional structures of RNA molecules provide rich and often critical information for understanding their functions, including how they recognize small molecule and protein partners. Computational modeling of RNA 3D structure is becoming increasingly accurate, particularly with the availability of growing numbers of template structures already solved experimentally and the development of sequence alignment and 3D modeling tools to take advantage of this database. For several recent "RNA puzzle" blind modeling challenges, we have successfully identified useful template structures and achieved accurate structure predictions through homology modeling tools developed in the Rosetta software suite. We describe our semi-automated methodology here and walk through two illustrative examples: an adenine riboswitch aptamer, modeled from a template guanine riboswitch structure, and a SAM I/IV riboswitch aptamer, modeled from a template SAM I riboswitch structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew M Watkins
- Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Ramya Rangan
- Biophysics Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Rhiju Das
- Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States; Biophysics Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.
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17
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Jacinto-Méndez D, Villada-Balbuena M, Cruz y Cruz SG, Carbajal-Tinoco MD. Static structure of sodium polystyrene sulfonate solutions obtained through a coarse-grained model. Mol Phys 2018. [DOI: 10.1080/00268976.2018.1471225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Damián Jacinto-Méndez
- Instituto Politécnico Nacional, UPIITA, Cd. de México, Mexico
- Departamento de Física, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Cd. de México, Mexico
| | - Mario Villada-Balbuena
- Departamento de Física, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Cd. de México, Mexico
| | | | - Mauricio D. Carbajal-Tinoco
- Departamento de Física, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Cd. de México, Mexico
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18
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Jin L, Shi YZ, Feng CJ, Tan YL, Tan ZJ. Modeling Structure, Stability, and Flexibility of Double-Stranded RNAs in Salt Solutions. Biophys J 2018; 115:1403-1416. [PMID: 30236782 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2018.08.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2018] [Revised: 08/10/2018] [Accepted: 08/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Double-stranded (ds) RNAs play essential roles in many processes of cell metabolism. The knowledge of three-dimensional (3D) structure, stability, and flexibility of dsRNAs in salt solutions is important for understanding their biological functions. In this work, we further developed our previously proposed coarse-grained model to predict 3D structure, stability, and flexibility for dsRNAs in monovalent and divalent ion solutions through involving an implicit structure-based electrostatic potential. The model can make reliable predictions for 3D structures of extensive dsRNAs with/without bulge/internal loops from their sequences, and the involvement of the structure-based electrostatic potential and corresponding ion condition can improve the predictions for 3D structures of dsRNAs in ion solutions. Furthermore, the model can make good predictions for thermal stability for extensive dsRNAs over the wide range of monovalent/divalent ion concentrations, and our analyses show that the thermally unfolding pathway of dsRNA is generally dependent on its length as well as its sequence. In addition, the model was employed to examine the salt-dependent flexibility of a dsRNA helix, and the calculated salt-dependent persistence lengths are in good accordance with experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Jin
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- & Nanostructures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Ya-Zhou Shi
- Research Center of Nonlinear Science, School of Mathematics and Computer Science, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China
| | - Chen-Jie Feng
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- & Nanostructures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Ya-Lan Tan
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- & Nanostructures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhi-Jie Tan
- Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- & Nanostructures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
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19
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Krüger A, Zimbres FM, Kronenberger T, Wrenger C. Molecular Modeling Applied to Nucleic Acid-Based Molecule Development. Biomolecules 2018; 8:E83. [PMID: 30150587 PMCID: PMC6163985 DOI: 10.3390/biom8030083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 08/12/2018] [Accepted: 08/16/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Molecular modeling by means of docking and molecular dynamics (MD) has become an integral part of early drug discovery projects, enabling the screening and enrichment of large libraries of small molecules. In the past decades, special emphasis was drawn to nucleic acid (NA)-based molecules in the fields of therapy, diagnosis, and drug delivery. Research has increased dramatically with the advent of the SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) technique, which results in single-stranded DNA or RNA sequences that bind with high affinity and specificity to their targets. Herein, we discuss the role and contribution of docking and MD to the development and optimization of new nucleic acid-based molecules. This review focuses on the different approaches currently available for molecular modeling applied to NA interaction with proteins. We discuss topics ranging from structure prediction to docking and MD, highlighting their main advantages and limitations and the influence of flexibility on their calculations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arne Krüger
- Unit for Drug Discovery, Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP 05508-000, Brazil.
| | - Flávia M Zimbres
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
| | - Thales Kronenberger
- Department of Internal Medicine VIII, University Hospital of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Carsten Wrenger
- Unit for Drug Discovery, Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP 05508-000, Brazil.
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20
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Villada-Balbuena M, Carbajal-Tinoco MD. One-bead coarse-grained model for RNA dynamics. J Chem Phys 2018; 146:045101. [PMID: 28147510 DOI: 10.1063/1.4974899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
We present a revised version of a coarse-grained model for RNA dynamics. In such approach, the description of nucleotides is reduced to single points that interact between them through a series of effective pair potentials that were obtained from an improved analysis of RNA structures from the Protein Data Bank. These interaction potentials are the main constituents of a Brownian dynamics simulation algorithm that allows to perform a variety of tasks by taking advantage of the reduced number of variables. Such tasks include the prediction of the three-dimensional configuration of a series of test molecules. Moreover, the model permits the inclusion of effective magnesium ions and the ends of the RNA chains can be pulled with an external force to study the process of unfolding. In spite of the simplicity of the model, we obtain a good agreement with the experimental results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mario Villada-Balbuena
- Departamento de Física, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional No. 2508, Colonia San Pedro Zacatenco, CP 07360 Ciudad de México, Mexico
| | - Mauricio D Carbajal-Tinoco
- Departamento de Física, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional No. 2508, Colonia San Pedro Zacatenco, CP 07360 Ciudad de México, Mexico
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21
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Shi YZ, Jin L, Feng CJ, Tan YL, Tan ZJ. Predicting 3D structure and stability of RNA pseudoknots in monovalent and divalent ion solutions. PLoS Comput Biol 2018; 14:e1006222. [PMID: 29879103 PMCID: PMC6007934 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2018] [Revised: 06/19/2018] [Accepted: 05/22/2018] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
RNA pseudoknots are a kind of minimal RNA tertiary structural motifs, and their three-dimensional (3D) structures and stability play essential roles in a variety of biological functions. Therefore, to predict 3D structures and stability of RNA pseudoknots is essential for understanding their functions. In the work, we employed our previously developed coarse-grained model with implicit salt to make extensive predictions and comprehensive analyses on the 3D structures and stability for RNA pseudoknots in monovalent/divalent ion solutions. The comparisons with available experimental data show that our model can successfully predict the 3D structures of RNA pseudoknots from their sequences, and can also make reliable predictions for the stability of RNA pseudoknots with different lengths and sequences over a wide range of monovalent/divalent ion concentrations. Furthermore, we made comprehensive analyses on the unfolding pathway for various RNA pseudoknots in ion solutions. Our analyses for extensive pseudokonts and the wide range of monovalent/divalent ion concentrations verify that the unfolding pathway of RNA pseudoknots is mainly dependent on the relative stability of unfolded intermediate states, and show that the unfolding pathway of RNA pseudoknots can be significantly modulated by their sequences and solution ion conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ya-Zhou Shi
- Research Center of Nonlinear Science, School of Mathematics and Computer Science, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Lei Jin
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Chen-Jie Feng
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Ya-Lan Tan
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhi-Jie Tan
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
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22
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Williams B, Zhao B, Tandon A, Ding F, Weeks KM, Zhang Q, Dokholyan NV. Structure modeling of RNA using sparse NMR constraints. Nucleic Acids Res 2018; 45:12638-12647. [PMID: 29165648 PMCID: PMC5728392 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkx1058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2017] [Accepted: 10/18/2017] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
RNAs fold into distinct molecular conformations that are often essential for their functions. Accurate structure modeling of complex RNA motifs, including ubiquitous non-canonical base pairs and pseudoknots, remains a challenge. Here, we present an NMR-guided all-atom discrete molecular dynamics (DMD) platform, iFoldNMR, for rapid and accurate structure modeling of complex RNAs. We show that sparse distance constraints from imino resonances, which can be readily obtained from routine NMR experiments and easier to compile than laborious assignments of non-solvent-exchangeable protons, are sufficient to direct a DMD search for low-energy RNA conformers. Benchmarking on a set of RNAs with complex folds spanning up to 56 nucleotides in length yields structural models that recapitulate experimentally determined structures with all-heavy-atom RMSDs ranging from 2.4 to 6.5 Å. This platform represents an efficient approach for high-throughput RNA structure modeling and will facilitate analysis of diverse, newly discovered functional RNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benfeard Williams
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.,Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Bo Zhao
- Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.,Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Arpit Tandon
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.,Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Feng Ding
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA
| | - Kevin M Weeks
- Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Qi Zhang
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.,Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Nikolay V Dokholyan
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.,Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
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23
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Xu X, Chen SJ. Hierarchical Assembly of RNA Three-Dimensional Structures Based on Loop Templates. J Phys Chem B 2018; 122:5327-5335. [PMID: 29258305 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.7b10102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The current RNA structure prediction methods cannot keep up the pace of the rapidly increasing number of sequences and the emerging new functions of RNAs. Template-based RNA three-dimensional structure prediction methods are restricted by the limited number of known RNA structures, and traditional motif-based search for the templates does not always lead to successful results. Here we report a new template search and assembly algorithm, the hierarchical loop template-assembly method (VfoldLA). The method searches for templates for single strand loop/junctions instead of the whole motifs, which often renders no available templates, or short fragments (several nucleotides), which requires a long computational time to assemble and refine. The VfoldLA method has the advantage of accounting for local and nonlocal interloop interactions. Benchmark tests indicate that this new method can provide low-resolution predictions for RNA conformations at different levels of structural complexities. Furthermore, the VfoldLA-predicted conformations may also serve as reliable putative models for further structure prediction and refinements. VfoldLA is accessible at http://rna.physics.missouri.edu/vfoldLA .
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaojun Xu
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering , Jiangsu University of Technology , Changzhou , Jiangsu 213001 , China.,Department of Physics, Department of Biochemistry, and Informatics Institute , University of Missouri , Columbia , Missouri 65211 , United States
| | - Shi-Jie Chen
- Department of Physics, Department of Biochemistry, and Informatics Institute , University of Missouri , Columbia , Missouri 65211 , United States
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24
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Jain S, Schlick T. F-RAG: Generating Atomic Coordinates from RNA Graphs by Fragment Assembly. J Mol Biol 2017; 429:3587-3605. [PMID: 28988954 PMCID: PMC5693719 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2017.09.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2017] [Revised: 09/12/2017] [Accepted: 09/22/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Coarse-grained models represent attractive approaches to analyze and simulate ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules, for example, for structure prediction and design, as they simplify the RNA structure to reduce the conformational search space. Our structure prediction protocol RAGTOP (RNA-As-Graphs Topology Prediction) represents RNA structures as tree graphs and samples graph topologies to produce candidate graphs. However, for a more detailed study and analysis, construction of atomic from coarse-grained models is required. Here we present our graph-based fragment assembly algorithm (F-RAG) to convert candidate three-dimensional (3D) tree graph models, produced by RAGTOP into atomic structures. We use our related RAG-3D utilities to partition graphs into subgraphs and search for structurally similar atomic fragments in a data set of RNA 3D structures. The fragments are edited and superimposed using common residues, full atomic models are scored using RAGTOP's knowledge-based potential, and geometries of top scoring models is optimized. To evaluate our models, we assess all-atom RMSDs and Interaction Network Fidelity (a measure of residue interactions) with respect to experimentally solved structures and compare our results to other fragment assembly programs. For a set of 50 RNA structures, we obtain atomic models with reasonable geometries and interactions, particularly good for RNAs containing junctions. Additional improvements to our protocol and databases are outlined. These results provide a good foundation for further work on RNA structure prediction and design applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swati Jain
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, 1001 Silver, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Tamar Schlick
- Department of Chemistry, New York University, 1001 Silver, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003, USA; Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012, USA; New York University-East China Normal University Center for Computational Chemistry at New York University Shanghai, Room 340, Geography Building, North Zhongshan Road, 3663 Shanghai, China.
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25
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Pan K, Bricker WP, Ratanalert S, Bathe M. Structure and conformational dynamics of scaffolded DNA origami nanoparticles. Nucleic Acids Res 2017; 45:6284-6298. [PMID: 28482032 PMCID: PMC5499760 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkx378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2016] [Accepted: 04/25/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Synthetic DNA is a highly programmable nanoscale material that can be designed to self-assemble into 3D structures that are fully determined by underlying Watson–Crick base pairing. The double crossover (DX) design motif has demonstrated versatility in synthesizing arbitrary DNA nanoparticles on the 5–100 nm scale for diverse applications in biotechnology. Prior computational investigations of these assemblies include all-atom and coarse-grained modeling, but modeling their conformational dynamics remains challenging due to their long relaxation times and associated computational cost. We apply all-atom molecular dynamics and coarse-grained finite element modeling to DX-based nanoparticles to elucidate their fine-scale and global conformational structure and dynamics. We use our coarse-grained model with a set of secondary structural motifs to predict the equilibrium solution structures of 45 DX-based DNA origami nanoparticles including a tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron, cuboctahedron and reinforced cube. Coarse-grained models are compared with 3D cryo-electron microscopy density maps for these five DNA nanoparticles and with all-atom molecular dynamics simulations for the tetrahedron and octahedron. Our results elucidate non-intuitive atomic-level structural details of DX-based DNA nanoparticles, and offer a general framework for efficient computational prediction of global and local structural and mechanical properties of DX-based assemblies that are inaccessible to all-atom based models alone.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keyao Pan
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - William P Bricker
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Sakul Ratanalert
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.,Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Mark Bathe
- Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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26
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Wang J, Mao K, Zhao Y, Zeng C, Xiang J, Zhang Y, Xiao Y. Optimization of RNA 3D structure prediction using evolutionary restraints of nucleotide-nucleotide interactions from direct coupling analysis. Nucleic Acids Res 2017; 45:6299-6309. [PMID: 28482022 PMCID: PMC5499770 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkx386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2016] [Accepted: 04/27/2017] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Direct coupling analysis of nucleotide coevolution provides a novel approach to identify which nucleotides in an RNA molecule are likely in direct contact, and this information obtained from sequence only can be used to predict RNA 3D structures with much improved accuracy. Here we present an efficient method that incorporates this information into current RNA 3D structure prediction methods, specifically 3dRNA. Our method makes much more accurate RNA 3D structure prediction than the original 3dRNA as well as other existing prediction methods that used the direct coupling analysis. In particular our method demonstrates a significant improvement in predicting multi-branch junction conformations, a major bottleneck for RNA 3D structure prediction. We also show that our method can be used to optimize the predictions by other methods. These results indicate that optimization of RNA 3D structure prediction using evolutionary restraints of nucleotide-nucleotide interactions from direct coupling analysis offers an efficient way for accurate RNA tertiary structure predictions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Wang
- Institute of Biophysics, School of Physics and Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China
| | - Kangkun Mao
- Institute of Biophysics, School of Physics and Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China
| | - Yunjie Zhao
- Institute of Biophysics and Department of Physics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
| | - Chen Zeng
- Department of Physics, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.,School of Life Sciences, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, China
| | - Jianjin Xiang
- Institute of Biophysics, School of Physics and Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China
| | - Yi Zhang
- Institute of Biophysics, School of Physics and Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China
| | - Yi Xiao
- Institute of Biophysics, School of Physics and Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China
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27
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Abstract
Biomolecular temperature sensors can be used for efficient control of large-volume bioreactors, for spatiotemporal imaging and control of gene expression, and to engineer robustness to temperature in biomolecular circuit design. Although RNA-based sensors, called "thermometers", have been investigated in both natural and synthetic contexts, an important challenge is to design diverse responses to temperature differing in sensitivity and threshold. We address this issue by constructing a library of RNA thermometers based on thermodynamic computations and experimentally measuring their activities in cell-free biomolecular "breadboards". Using free energies of the minimum free energy structures as well as melt profile computations, we estimated that a diverse set of temperature responses were possible. We experimentally found a wide range of responses to temperature in the range 29-37 °C with fold-changes varying over 3-fold around the starting thermometer. The sensitivities of these responses ranged over 10-fold around the starting thermometer. We correlated these measurements with computational expectations, finding that although there was no strong correlation for the individual thermometers, overall trends of diversity, fold-changes, and sensitivities were similar. These results present a toolbox of RNA-based circuit elements with diverse temperature responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaunak Sen
- Department
of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
| | - Divyansh Apurva
- Department
of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
| | - Rohit Satija
- Department
of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
- Institute
for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States
| | - Dan Siegal
- Division
of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
- Schafer Corporation, Arlington, Virginia 22203, United States
| | - Richard M. Murray
- Division
of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
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28
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Dršata T, Réblová K, Beššeová I, Šponer J, Lankaš F. rRNA C-Loops: Mechanical Properties of a Recurrent Structural Motif. J Chem Theory Comput 2017; 13:3359-3371. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.7b00061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Tomáš Dršata
- Institute
of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague, Czech Republic
- Institute
of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská
135, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Kamila Réblová
- CEITEC—Central European Institute of Technology, Campus Bohunice, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Ivana Beššeová
- Institute
of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská
135, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Šponer
- Institute
of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská
135, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic
- CEITEC—Central European Institute of Technology, Campus Bohunice, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Filip Lankaš
- Institute
of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague, Czech Republic
- Laboratory
of Informatics and Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Technická 5, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic
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29
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Demharter S, Knapp B, Deane CM, Minary P. Modeling Functional Motions of Biological Systems by Customized Natural Moves. Biophys J 2017; 111:710-721. [PMID: 27558715 PMCID: PMC5002067 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2016.06.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2016] [Revised: 06/20/2016] [Accepted: 06/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Simulating the functional motions of biomolecular systems requires large computational resources. We introduce a computationally inexpensive protocol for the systematic testing of hypotheses regarding the dynamic behavior of proteins and nucleic acids. The protocol is based on natural move Monte Carlo, a highly efficient conformational sampling method with built-in customization capabilities that allows researchers to design and perform a large number of simulations to investigate functional motions in biological systems. We demonstrate the use of this protocol on both a protein and a DNA case study. Firstly, we investigate the plasticity of a class II major histocompatibility complex in the absence of a bound peptide. Secondly, we study the effects of the epigenetic mark 5-hydroxymethyl on cytosine on the structure of the Dickerson-Drew dodecamer. We show how our customized natural moves protocol can be used to investigate causal relationships of functional motions in biological systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel Demharter
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Bernhard Knapp
- Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Peter Minary
- Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
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30
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Abstract
More than 20 coarse-grained (CG) DNA models have been developed for simulating the behavior of this molecule under various conditions, including those required for nanotechnology. However, none of these models reproduces the DNA polymorphism associated with conformational changes in the ribose rings of the DNA backbone. These changes make an essential contribution to the DNA local deformability and provide the possibility of the transition of the DNA double helix from the B-form to the A-form during interactions with biological molecules. We propose a CG representation of the ribose conformational flexibility. We substantiate the choice of the CG sites (six per nucleotide) needed for the "sugar" GC DNA model, and obtain the potentials of the CG interactions between the sites by the "bottom-up" approach using the all-atom AMBER force field. We show that the representation of the ribose flexibility requires one non-harmonic and one three-particle potential, the forms of both the potentials being different from the ones generally used. The model also includes (i) explicit representation of ions (in an implicit solvent) and (ii) sequence dependence. With these features, the sugar CG DNA model reproduces (with the same parameters) both the B- and A- stable forms under corresponding conditions and demonstrates both the A to B and the B to A phase transitions. Graphical Abstract The proposed coarse-grained DNA model allows to reproduce both the B- and A- DNA forms and the transitions between them under corresponding conditions.
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31
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Morán Losada P, Fischer S, Chouvarine P, Tümmler B. Three-base periodicity of sites of sequence variation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus core genomes. FEBS Lett 2016; 590:3538-3543. [PMID: 27664047 DOI: 10.1002/1873-3468.12431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2016] [Revised: 09/08/2016] [Accepted: 09/12/2016] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
The three-base periodicity property is characteristic of protein-coding sequences. Here, we report on three-base periodicity of sequence variation in the core genome of bacteria. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) syntenies were extracted from pairwise genome alignments of 41 Staphylococcus aureus or 20 Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. The length of fragment pairs with identical nucleotides at all SNP positions showed a length-dependent overrepresentation of multiples of three nucleotides at corresponding codon positions of the AT-rich S. aureus and the GC-rich P. aeruginosa. Three-base SNP periodicity seems to be a characteristic feature of the tightly arranged bacterial core genome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia Morán Losada
- Clinical Research Group, 'Molecular Pathology of Cystic Fibrosis and Pseudomonas Genomics', OE 6710, Hannover Medical School, Germany
| | - Sebastian Fischer
- Clinical Research Group, 'Molecular Pathology of Cystic Fibrosis and Pseudomonas Genomics', OE 6710, Hannover Medical School, Germany
| | - Philippe Chouvarine
- Clinical Research Group, 'Molecular Pathology of Cystic Fibrosis and Pseudomonas Genomics', OE 6710, Hannover Medical School, Germany
| | - Burkhard Tümmler
- Clinical Research Group, 'Molecular Pathology of Cystic Fibrosis and Pseudomonas Genomics', OE 6710, Hannover Medical School, Germany. .,Biomedical Research in Endstage and Obstructive Lung Disease (BREATH), German Center for Lung Research, Hannover, Germany.
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32
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Lyubartsev AP, Naômé A, Vercauteren DP, Laaksonen A. Systematic hierarchical coarse-graining with the inverse Monte Carlo method. J Chem Phys 2016; 143:243120. [PMID: 26723605 DOI: 10.1063/1.4934095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
We outline our coarse-graining strategy for linking micro- and mesoscales of soft matter and biological systems. The method is based on effective pairwise interaction potentials obtained in detailed ab initio or classical atomistic Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, which can be used in simulations at less accurate level after scaling up the size. The effective potentials are obtained by applying the inverse Monte Carlo (IMC) method [A. P. Lyubartsev and A. Laaksonen, Phys. Rev. E 52(4), 3730-3737 (1995)] on a chosen subset of degrees of freedom described in terms of radial distribution functions. An in-house software package MagiC is developed to obtain the effective potentials for arbitrary molecular systems. In this work we compute effective potentials to model DNA-protein interactions (bacterial LiaR regulator bound to a 26 base pairs DNA fragment) at physiological salt concentration at a coarse-grained (CG) level. Normally the IMC CG pair-potentials are used directly as look-up tables but here we have fitted them to five Gaussians and a repulsive wall. Results show stable association between DNA and the model protein as well as similar position fluctuation profile.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander P Lyubartsev
- Division of Physical Chemistry, Arrhenius Laboratory, Stockholm University, S 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Aymeric Naômé
- Division of Physical Chemistry, Arrhenius Laboratory, Stockholm University, S 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Aatto Laaksonen
- Division of Physical Chemistry, Arrhenius Laboratory, Stockholm University, S 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
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33
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Shi YZ, Jin L, Wang FH, Zhu XL, Tan ZJ. Predicting 3D Structure, Flexibility, and Stability of RNA Hairpins in Monovalent and Divalent Ion Solutions. Biophys J 2016; 109:2654-2665. [PMID: 26682822 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2015.11.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2015] [Revised: 10/09/2015] [Accepted: 11/06/2015] [Indexed: 10/24/2022] Open
Abstract
A full understanding of RNA-mediated biology would require the knowledge of three-dimensional (3D) structures, structural flexibility, and stability of RNAs. To predict RNA 3D structures and stability, we have previously proposed a three-bead coarse-grained predictive model with implicit salt/solvent potentials. In this study, we further develop the model by improving the implicit-salt electrostatic potential and including a sequence-dependent coaxial stacking potential to enable the model to simulate RNA 3D structure folding in divalent/monovalent ion solutions. The model presented here can predict 3D structures of RNA hairpins with bulges/internal loops (<77 nucleotides) from their sequences at the corresponding experimental ion conditions with an overall improved accuracy compared to the experimental data; the model also makes reliable predictions for the flexibility of RNA hairpins with bulge loops of different lengths at several divalent/monovalent ion conditions. In addition, the model successfully predicts the stability of RNA hairpins with various loops/stems in divalent/monovalent ion solutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ya-Zhou Shi
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of the Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Lei Jin
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of the Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Feng-Hua Wang
- Engineering Training Center, Jianghan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Xiao-Long Zhu
- Department of Physics, School of Physics and Information Engineering, Jianghan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Zhi-Jie Tan
- Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of the Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
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34
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Dallaire P, Tan H, Szulwach K, Ma C, Jin P, Major F. Structural dynamics control the MicroRNA maturation pathway. Nucleic Acids Res 2016; 44:9956-9964. [PMID: 27651454 PMCID: PMC5175353 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkw793] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2015] [Revised: 08/26/2016] [Accepted: 08/29/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are crucial gene expression regulators and first-order suspects in the development and progression of many diseases. Comparative analysis of cancer cell expression data highlights many deregulated miRNAs. Low expression of miR-125a was related to poor breast cancer prognosis. Interestingly, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in miR-125a was located within a minor allele expressed by breast cancer patients. The SNP is not predicted to affect the ground state structure of the primary transcript or precursor, but neither the precursor nor mature product is detected by RT-qPCR. How this SNP modulates the maturation of miR-125a is poorly understood. Here, building upon a model of RNA dynamics derived from nuclear magnetic resonance studies, we developed a quantitative model enabling the visualization and comparison of networks of transient structures. We observed a high correlation between the distances between networks of variants with that of their respective wild types and their relative degrees of maturation to the latter, suggesting an important role of transient structures in miRNA homeostasis. We classified the human miRNAs according to pairwise distances between their networks of transient structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Dallaire
- Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer, and Department of Computer Science and Operations Research, Université de Montréal, PO Box 6128, Downtown Station, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada
| | - Huiping Tan
- Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Keith Szulwach
- Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Christopher Ma
- Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Peng Jin
- Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - François Major
- Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer, and Department of Computer Science and Operations Research, Université de Montréal, PO Box 6128, Downtown Station, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada
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35
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Tan C, Terakawa T, Takada S. Dynamic Coupling among Protein Binding, Sliding, and DNA Bending Revealed by Molecular Dynamics. J Am Chem Soc 2016; 138:8512-22. [DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b03729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Cheng Tan
- Department
of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Tsuyoshi Terakawa
- Department
of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Shoji Takada
- Department
of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
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36
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Nucleic acid polymeric properties and electrostatics: Directly comparing theory and simulation with experiment. Adv Colloid Interface Sci 2016; 232:49-56. [PMID: 26482088 DOI: 10.1016/j.cis.2015.09.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2015] [Revised: 09/18/2015] [Accepted: 09/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Nucleic acids are biopolymers that carry genetic information and are also involved in various gene regulation functions such as gene silencing and protein translation. Because of their negatively charged backbones, nucleic acids are polyelectrolytes. To adequately understand nucleic acid folding and function, we need to properly describe its i) polymer/polyelectrolyte properties and ii) associating ion atmosphere. While various theories and simulation models have been developed to describe nucleic acids and the ions around them, many of these theories/simulations have not been well evaluated due to complexities in comparison with experiment. In this review, I discuss some recent experiments that have been strategically designed for straightforward comparison with theories and simulation models. Such data serve as excellent benchmarks to identify limitations in prevailing theories and simulation parameters.
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37
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Coarse-grained modeling of RNA 3D structure. Methods 2016; 103:138-56. [PMID: 27125734 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2016.04.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2015] [Revised: 04/21/2016] [Accepted: 04/22/2016] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Functional RNA molecules depend on three-dimensional (3D) structures to carry out their tasks within the cell. Understanding how these molecules interact to carry out their biological roles requires a detailed knowledge of RNA 3D structure and dynamics as well as thermodynamics, which strongly governs the folding of RNA and RNA-RNA interactions as well as a host of other interactions within the cellular environment. Experimental determination of these properties is difficult, and various computational methods have been developed to model the folding of RNA 3D structures and their interactions with other molecules. However, computational methods also have their limitations, especially when the biological effects demand computation of the dynamics beyond a few hundred nanoseconds. For the researcher confronted with such challenges, a more amenable approach is to resort to coarse-grained modeling to reduce the number of data points and computational demand to a more tractable size, while sacrificing as little critical information as possible. This review presents an introduction to the topic of coarse-grained modeling of RNA 3D structures and dynamics, covering both high- and low-resolution strategies. We discuss how physics-based approaches compare with knowledge based methods that rely on databases of information. In the course of this review, we discuss important aspects in the reasoning process behind building different models and the goals and pitfalls that can result.
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38
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Dans PD, Danilāne L, Ivani I, Dršata T, Lankaš F, Hospital A, Walther J, Pujagut RI, Battistini F, Gelpí JL, Lavery R, Orozco M. Long-timescale dynamics of the Drew-Dickerson dodecamer. Nucleic Acids Res 2016; 44:4052-66. [PMID: 27084952 PMCID: PMC4872116 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkw264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2015] [Accepted: 03/31/2016] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
We present a systematic study of the long-timescale dynamics of the Drew–Dickerson dodecamer (DDD: d(CGCGAATTGCGC)2) a prototypical B-DNA duplex. Using our newly parameterized PARMBSC1 force field, we describe the conformational landscape of DDD in a variety of ionic environments from minimal salt to 2 M Na+Cl− or K+Cl−. The sensitivity of the simulations to the use of different solvent and ion models is analyzed in detail using multi-microsecond simulations. Finally, an extended (10 μs) simulation is used to characterize slow and infrequent conformational changes in DDD, leading to the identification of previously uncharacterized conformational states of this duplex which can explain biologically relevant conformational transitions. With a total of more than 43 μs of unrestrained molecular dynamics simulation, this study is the most extensive investigation of the dynamics of the most prototypical DNA duplex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo D Dans
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Joint BSC-IRB Research Program in Computational Biology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Linda Danilāne
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Joint BSC-IRB Research Program in Computational Biology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain School of Chemistry, University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Ivan Ivani
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Joint BSC-IRB Research Program in Computational Biology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Tomáš Dršata
- Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Flemingovo nám 2, 166 10 Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Filip Lankaš
- Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Flemingovo nám 2, 166 10 Prague, Czech Republic Laboratory of Informatics and Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Technická 5, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Adam Hospital
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Joint BSC-IRB Research Program in Computational Biology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jürgen Walther
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Joint BSC-IRB Research Program in Computational Biology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ricard Illa Pujagut
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Joint BSC-IRB Research Program in Computational Biology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Federica Battistini
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Joint BSC-IRB Research Program in Computational Biology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Josep Lluis Gelpí
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Richard Lavery
- Bases Moléculaires et Structurales des Systèmes Infectieux, Université Lyon I/CNRS UMR 5086, IBCP, 7 Passage du Vercors, Lyon 69367, France
| | - Modesto Orozco
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Joint BSC-IRB Research Program in Computational Biology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
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39
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Dans PD, Walther J, Gómez H, Orozco M. Multiscale simulation of DNA. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2016; 37:29-45. [DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2015.11.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2015] [Revised: 11/23/2015] [Accepted: 11/25/2015] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
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40
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Maximova T, Moffatt R, Ma B, Nussinov R, Shehu A. Principles and Overview of Sampling Methods for Modeling Macromolecular Structure and Dynamics. PLoS Comput Biol 2016; 12:e1004619. [PMID: 27124275 PMCID: PMC4849799 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004619] [Citation(s) in RCA: 132] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Investigation of macromolecular structure and dynamics is fundamental to understanding how macromolecules carry out their functions in the cell. Significant advances have been made toward this end in silico, with a growing number of computational methods proposed yearly to study and simulate various aspects of macromolecular structure and dynamics. This review aims to provide an overview of recent advances, focusing primarily on methods proposed for exploring the structure space of macromolecules in isolation and in assemblies for the purpose of characterizing equilibrium structure and dynamics. In addition to surveying recent applications that showcase current capabilities of computational methods, this review highlights state-of-the-art algorithmic techniques proposed to overcome challenges posed in silico by the disparate spatial and time scales accessed by dynamic macromolecules. This review is not meant to be exhaustive, as such an endeavor is impossible, but rather aims to balance breadth and depth of strategies for modeling macromolecular structure and dynamics for a broad audience of novices and experts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatiana Maximova
- Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America
| | - Ryan Moffatt
- Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America
| | - Buyong Ma
- Basic Science Program, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. Cancer and Inflammation Program, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Ruth Nussinov
- Basic Science Program, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. Cancer and Inflammation Program, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland, United States of America
- Sackler Institute of Molecular Medicine, Department of Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Amarda Shehu
- Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America
- Department of Biongineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America
- School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, Manassas, Virginia, United States of America
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41
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Abstract
Allosteric transition, defined as conformational changes induced by ligand binding, is one of the fundamental properties of proteins. Allostery has been observed and characterized in many proteins, and has been recently utilized to control protein function via regulation of protein activity. Here, we review the physical and evolutionary origin of protein allostery, as well as its importance to protein regulation, drug discovery, and biological processes in living systems. We describe recently developed approaches to identify allosteric pathways, connected sets of pairwise interactions that are responsible for propagation of conformational change from the ligand-binding site to a distal functional site. We then present experimental and computational protein engineering approaches for control of protein function by modulation of allosteric sites. As an example of application of these approaches, we describe a synergistic computational and experimental approach to rescue the cystic-fibrosis-associated protein cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, which upon deletion of a single residue misfolds and causes disease. This example demonstrates the power of allosteric manipulation in proteins to both elucidate mechanisms of molecular function and to develop therapeutic strategies that rescue those functions. Allosteric control of proteins provides a tool to shine a light on the complex cascades of cellular processes and facilitate unprecedented interrogation of biological systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nikolay V Dokholyan
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
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42
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Li G, Shen H, Zhang D, Li Y, Wang H. Coarse-Grained Modeling of Nucleic Acids Using Anisotropic Gay-Berne and Electric Multipole Potentials. J Chem Theory Comput 2016; 12:676-93. [PMID: 26717419 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5b00903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
In this work, we attempt to apply a coarse-grained (CG) model, which is based on anisotropic Gay-Berne and electric multipole (EMP) potentials, to the modeling of nucleic acids. First, a comparison has been made between the CG and atomistic models (AMBER point-charge model) in the modeling of DNA and RNA hairpin structures. The CG results have demonstrated a good quality in maintaining the nucleic acid hairpin structures, in reproducing the dynamics of backbone atoms of nucleic acids, and in describing the hydrogen-bonding interactions between nucleic acid base pairs. Second, the CG and atomistic AMBER models yield comparable results in modeling double-stranded DNA and RNA molecules. It is encouraging that our CG model is capable of reproducing many elastic features of nucleic acid base pairs in terms of the distributions of the interbase pair step parameters (such as shift, slide, tilt, and twist) and the intrabase pair parameters (such as buckle, propeller, shear, and stretch). Finally, The GBEMP model has shown a promising ability to predict the melting temperatures of DNA duplexes with different lengths.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guohui Li
- Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Design, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Hujun Shen
- Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Design, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Dinglin Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Design, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Yan Li
- Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Design, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China
| | - Honglei Wang
- Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Design, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China
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43
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Abstract
Advances and applications of synthetic genetic polymers (xeno-nucleic acids) are reviewed in this article. The types of synthetic genetic polymers are summarized. The basic properties of them are elaborated and their technical applications are presented. Challenges and prospects of synthetic genetic polymers are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Ma
- Department of Chemistry
- National University of Singapore
- Singapore 117543
| | - Danence Lee
- Department of Chemistry
- National University of Singapore
- Singapore 117543
| | - Yong Quan Tan
- Department of Biochemistry
- National University of Singapore
- Singapore 117597
| | - Garrett Wong
- Department of Biochemistry
- National University of Singapore
- Singapore 117597
| | - Zhiqiang Gao
- Department of Chemistry
- National University of Singapore
- Singapore 117543
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44
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Mondal M, Halder S, Chakrabarti J, Bhattacharyya D. Hybrid simulation approach incorporating microscopic interaction along with rigid body degrees of freedom for stacking between base pairs. Biopolymers 2015; 105:212-26. [PMID: 26600167 DOI: 10.1002/bip.22787] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2015] [Revised: 10/19/2015] [Accepted: 11/17/2015] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Stacking interaction between the aromatic heterocyclic bases plays an important role in the double helical structures of nucleic acids. Considering the base as rigid body, there are total of 18 degrees of freedom of a dinucleotide step. Some of these parameters show sequence preferences, indicating that the detailed atomic interactions are important in the stacking. Large variants of non-canonical base pairs have been seen in the crystallographic structures of RNA. However, their stacking preferences are not thoroughly deciphered yet from experimental results. The current theoretical approaches use either the rigid body degrees of freedom where the atomic information are lost or computationally expensive all atom simulations. We have used a hybrid simulation approach incorporating Monte-Carlo Metropolis sampling in the hyperspace of 18 stacking parameters where the interaction energies using AMBER-parm99bsc0 and CHARMM-36 force-fields were calculated from atomic positions. We have also performed stacking energy calculations for structures from Monte-Carlo ensemble by Dispersion corrected density functional theory. The available experimental data with Watson-Crick base pairs are compared to establish the validity of the method. Stacking interaction involving A:U and G:C base pairs with non-canonical G:U base pairs also were calculated and showed that these structures were also sequence dependent. This approach could be useful to generate multiscale modeling of nucleic acids in terms of coarse-grained parameters where the atomic interactions are preserved. This method would also be useful to predict structure and dynamics of different base pair steps containing non Watson-Crick base pairs, as found often in the non-coding RNA structures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 105: 212-226, 2016.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manas Mondal
- Computational Science Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata, 700 064, India
| | - Sukanya Halder
- Computational Science Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata, 700 064, India
| | - Jaydeb Chakrabarti
- Department of Chemical, Biological and Macro-Molecular Sciences, S.N. Bose National Center for Basic Sciences, Sector III, Salt Lake, Kolkata, 700 098, India
| | - Dhananjay Bhattacharyya
- Computational Science Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Kolkata, 700 064, India
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45
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Boudard M, Bernauer J, Barth D, Cohen J, Denise A. GARN: Sampling RNA 3D Structure Space with Game Theory and Knowledge-Based Scoring Strategies. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0136444. [PMID: 26313379 PMCID: PMC4551674 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2015] [Accepted: 08/03/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Cellular processes involve large numbers of RNA molecules. The functions of these RNA molecules and their binding to molecular machines are highly dependent on their 3D structures. One of the key challenges in RNA structure prediction and modeling is predicting the spatial arrangement of the various structural elements of RNA. As RNA folding is generally hierarchical, methods involving coarse-grained models hold great promise for this purpose. We present here a novel coarse-grained method for sampling, based on game theory and knowledge-based potentials. This strategy, GARN (Game Algorithm for RNa sampling), is often much faster than previously described techniques and generates large sets of solutions closely resembling the native structure. GARN is thus a suitable starting point for the molecular modeling of large RNAs, particularly those with experimental constraints. GARN is available from: http://garn.lri.fr/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mélanie Boudard
- PRiSM, CNRS UMR 8144, Université de Versailles-St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 78000 Versailles, France
- LRI, CNRS UMR 8623, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France
- * E-mail: (MB); (JC)
| | - Julie Bernauer
- AMIB, Inria Saclay-Ile de France, 91120 Palaiseau, France
- LIX, CNRS UMR 7161, Ecole Polytechnique, 91120 Palaiseau, France
| | - Dominique Barth
- PRiSM, CNRS UMR 8144, Université de Versailles-St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 78000 Versailles, France
| | - Johanne Cohen
- LRI, CNRS UMR 8623, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France
- * E-mail: (MB); (JC)
| | - Alain Denise
- LRI, CNRS UMR 8623, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France
- AMIB, Inria Saclay-Ile de France, 91120 Palaiseau, France
- I2BC, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France
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46
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Dršata T, Lankaš F. Multiscale modelling of DNA mechanics. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2015; 27:323102. [PMID: 26194779 DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/27/32/323102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Mechanical properties of DNA are important not only in a wide range of biological processes but also in the emerging field of DNA nanotechnology. We review some of the recent developments in modeling these properties, emphasizing the multiscale nature of the problem. Modern atomic resolution, explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations have contributed to our understanding of DNA fine structure and conformational polymorphism. These simulations may serve as data sources to parameterize rigid base models which themselves have undergone major development. A consistent buildup of larger entities involving multiple rigid bases enables us to describe DNA at more global scales. Free energy methods to impose large strains on DNA, as well as bead models and other approaches, are also briefly discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomáš Dršata
- Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague, Czech Republic. Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University Prague, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic
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47
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Abstract
Despite the success of RNA secondary structure prediction for simple, short RNAs, the problem of predicting RNAs with long-range tertiary folds remains. Furthermore, RNA 3D structure prediction is hampered by the lack of the knowledge about the tertiary contacts and their thermodynamic parameters. Low-resolution structural modeling enables us to estimate the conformational entropies for a number of tertiary folds through rigorous statistical mechanical calculations. The models lead to 3D tertiary folds at coarse-grained level. The coarse-grained structures serve as the initial structures for all-atom molecular dynamics refinement to build the final all-atom 3D structures. In this paper, we present an overview of RNA computational models for secondary and tertiary structures’ predictions and then focus on a recently developed RNA statistical mechanical model—the Vfold model. The main emphasis is placed on the physics behind the models, including the treatment of the non-canonical interactions in secondary and tertiary structure modelings, and the correlations to RNA functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaojun Xu
- />Department of Physics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA
- />Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA
- />Informatics Institute, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA
| | - Shi-Jie Chen
- />Department of Physics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA
- />Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA
- />Informatics Institute, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA
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48
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Rhinehardt KL, Srinivas G, Mohan RV. Molecular Dynamics Simulation Analysis of Anti-MUC1 Aptamer and Mucin 1 Peptide Binding. J Phys Chem B 2015; 119:6571-83. [PMID: 25963836 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b02483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Aptasensors utilize aptamers as bioreceptors. Aptamers are highly efficient, have a high specificity and are reusable. Within the biosensor the aptamers are immobilized to maximize their access to target molecules. Knowledge of the orientation and location of the aptamer and peptide during binding could be gained through computational modeling. Experimentally, the aptamer (anti-MUC1 S2.2) has been identified as a bioreceptor for breast cancer biomarker mucin 1 (MUC1) protein. However, within this protein lie several peptide variants with the common sequence APDTRPAP that are targeted by the aptamer. Understanding orientation and location of the binding region for a peptide-aptamer complex is critical in their biosensor applicability. In this study, we investigate through computational modeling how this peptide sequence and its minor variants affect the peptide-aptamer complex binding. We use molecular dynamics simulations to study multiple peptide-aptamer systems consisting of MUC1 (APDTRPAP) and MUC1-G (APDTRPAPG) peptides with the anti-MUC1 aptamer under similar physiological conditions reported experimentally. Multiple simulations of the MUC1 peptide and aptamer reveal that the peptide interacts between 3' and 5' ends of the aptamer but does not fully bind. Multiple simulations of the MUC1-G peptide indicate consistent binding with the thymine loop of the aptamer, initiated by the arginine residue of the peptide. We find that the binding event induces structural changes in the aptamer by altering the number of hydrogen bonds within the aptamer and establishes a stable peptide-aptamer complex. In all MUC1-G cases the occurrence of binding was confirmed by systematically studying the distance distributions between peptide and aptamers. These results are found to corroborate well with experimental study reported in the literature that indicated a strong binding in the case of MUC1-G peptide and anti-MUC1 aptamer. Present MD simulations highlight the role of the arginine residue of MUC1-G peptide in initiating the binding. The addition of the glycine residue to the peptide, as in the case of MUC1-G, is shown to yield a stable binding. Our study clearly demonstrates the ability of MD simulations to obtain molecular insights for peptide-aptamer binding, and to provide details on the orientation and location of binding between the peptide-aptamer that can be instrumental in biosensor development.
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49
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Šulc P, Romano F, Ouldridge TE, Doye JPK, Louis AA. A nucleotide-level coarse-grained model of RNA. J Chem Phys 2015; 140:235102. [PMID: 24952569 DOI: 10.1063/1.4881424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
We present a new, nucleotide-level model for RNA, oxRNA, based on the coarse-graining methodology recently developed for the oxDNA model of DNA. The model is designed to reproduce structural, mechanical, and thermodynamic properties of RNA, and the coarse-graining level aims to retain the relevant physics for RNA hybridization and the structure of single- and double-stranded RNA. In order to explore its strengths and weaknesses, we test the model in a range of nanotechnological and biological settings. Applications explored include the folding thermodynamics of a pseudoknot, the formation of a kissing loop complex, the structure of a hexagonal RNA nanoring, and the unzipping of a hairpin motif. We argue that the model can be used for efficient simulations of the structure of systems with thousands of base pairs, and for the assembly of systems of up to hundreds of base pairs. The source code implementing the model is released for public use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petr Šulc
- Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom
| | - Flavio Romano
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QZ, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas E Ouldridge
- Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom
| | - Jonathan P K Doye
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QZ, United Kingdom
| | - Ard A Louis
- Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom
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50
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Moraga I, Wernig G, Wilmes S, Gryshkova V, Richter CP, Hong WJ, Sinha R, Guo F, Fabionar H, Wehrman TS, Krutzik P, Demharter S, Plo I, Weissman IL, Minary P, Majeti R, Constantinescu SN, Piehler J, Garcia KC. Tuning cytokine receptor signaling by re-orienting dimer geometry with surrogate ligands. Cell 2015; 160:1196-208. [PMID: 25728669 PMCID: PMC4766813 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2014] [Revised: 01/22/2015] [Accepted: 02/03/2015] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Most cell-surface receptors for cytokines and growth factors signal as dimers, but it is unclear whether remodeling receptor dimer topology is a viable strategy to "tune" signaling output. We utilized diabodies (DA) as surrogate ligands in a prototypical dimeric receptor-ligand system, the cytokine Erythropoietin (EPO) and its receptor (EpoR), to dimerize EpoR ectodomains in non-native architectures. Diabody-induced signaling amplitudes varied from full to minimal agonism, and structures of these DA/EpoR complexes differed in EpoR dimer orientation and proximity. Diabodies also elicited biased or differential activation of signaling pathways and gene expression profiles compared to EPO. Non-signaling diabodies inhibited proliferation of erythroid precursors from patients with a myeloproliferative neoplasm due to a constitutively active JAK2V617F mutation. Thus, intracellular oncogenic mutations causing ligand-independent receptor activation can be counteracted by extracellular ligands that re-orient receptors into inactive dimer topologies. This approach has broad applications for tuning signaling output for many dimeric receptor systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ignacio Moraga
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA,Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA
| | - Gerlinde Wernig
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA,Department of Pathology, Division of Hematopathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA
| | - Stephan Wilmes
- Division of Biophysics, Department of Biology, University of Osnabrück, 49076, Germany
| | - Vitalina Gryshkova
- Ludwig Institute For Cancer Research and de Duve Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
| | | | - Wan-Jen Hong
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA,Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA
| | - Rahul Sinha
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA
| | - Feng Guo
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA,Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA
| | - Hyna Fabionar
- DiscoveRx, 42501 Albrae St, Fremont, California, 94538, USA
| | - Tom S. Wehrman
- Primity Bio, 3350 Scott blvd ste 6101, Santa Clara, CA 95054
| | - Peter Krutzik
- Primity Bio, 3350 Scott blvd ste 6101, Santa Clara, CA 95054
| | - Samuel Demharter
- Department of Computer Science Wolfson Building, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QD, United Kingdom
| | - Isabelle Plo
- Institut Gustave Roussy, INSERM U1009, 94805, Villejuif, France
| | - Irving L. Weissman
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA
| | - Peter Minary
- Department of Computer Science Wolfson Building, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QD, United Kingdom
| | - Ravindra Majeti
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA,Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA
| | - Stefan N. Constantinescu
- Ludwig Institute For Cancer Research and de Duve Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Jacob Piehler
- Division of Biophysics, Department of Biology, University of Osnabrück, 49076, Germany
| | - K. Christopher Garcia
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA,Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305-5345, USA,Correspondence to:
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