Stability and conformational memory of electrosprayed and rehydrated bacteriophage MS2 virus coat proteins.
Curr Res Struct Biol 2022;
4:338-348. [PMID:
36440379 PMCID:
PMC9685359 DOI:
10.1016/j.crstbi.2022.10.001]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Revised: 09/23/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Proteins are innately dynamic, which is important for their functions, but which also poses significant challenges when studying their structures. Gas-phase techniques can utilise separation and a range of sample manipulations to transcend some of the limitations of conventional techniques for structural biology in crystalline or solution phase, and isolate different states for separate interrogation. However, the transfer from solution to the gas phase risks affecting the structures, and it is unclear to what extent different conformations remain distinct in the gas phase, and if resolution in silico can recover the native conformations and their differences. Here, we use extensive molecular dynamics simulations to study the two distinct conformations of dimeric capsid protein of the MS2 bacteriophage. The protein undergoes notable restructuring of its peripheral parts in the gas phase, but subsequent simulation in solvent largely recovers the native structure. Our results suggest that despite some structural loss due to the experimental conditions, gas-phase structural biology techniques provide meaningful data that inform not only about the structures but also conformational dynamics of proteins.
Presented extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulation data investigating protein vacuum exposure and rehydration dynamics.
Demonstrated that the majority of the protein structure recovers their initial solution conformation after vacuum exposure.
Explored the potential gain for structural biology of using MD simulation to refine gas-phase determined protein structures.
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