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Li T, Motta S, He Y. Deciphering the Mystery in p300 Taz2-p53 TAD2 Recognition. J Chem Theory Comput 2024. [PMID: 39141804 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/16/2024]
Abstract
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) engage in various fundamental biological activities, and their behavior is of particular importance for a better understanding of the verbose but well-organized signal transduction in cells. IDPs exhibit uniquely paradoxical features with low affinity but simultaneously high specificity in recognizing their binding targets. The transcription factor p53 plays a crucial role in cancer suppression, carrying out some of its biological functions using its disordered regions, such as N-terminal transactivation domain 2 (TAD2). Exploration of the binding and unbinding processes between proteins is challenging, and the inherently disordered properties of these regions further complicate the issue. Computer simulations are a powerful tool to complement the experiments to fill gaps to explore the binding/unbinding processes between proteins. Here, we investigated the binding mechanism between p300 Taz2 and p53 TAD2 through extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the physics-based UNited RESidue (UNRES) force field with additional Go̅-like potentials. Distance restraints extracted from the NMR-resolved structures were imposed on intermolecular residue pairs to accelerate binding simulations, in which Taz2 was immobilized in a native-like conformation and disordered TAD2 was fully free. Starting from six structures with TAD2 placed at different positions around Taz2, we observed a metastable intermediate state in which the middle helical segment of TAD2 is anchored in the binding pocket, highlighting the significance of the TAD2 helix in directing protein recognition. Physics-based binding simulations show that successful binding is achieved after a series of stages, including (1) protein collisions to initiate the formation of encounter complexes, (2) partial attachment of TAD2, and finally (3) full attachment of TAD2 to the correct binding pocket of Taz2. Furthermore, machine-learning-based PathDetect-SOM was used to identify two binding pathways, the encounter complexes, and the intermediate states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tongtong Li
- Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, United States
| | - Stefano Motta
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan 20126, Italy
| | - Yi He
- Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, United States
- Translational Informatics Division, Department of Internal Medicine, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, United States
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Pracht P, Grimme S, Bannwarth C, Bohle F, Ehlert S, Feldmann G, Gorges J, Müller M, Neudecker T, Plett C, Spicher S, Steinbach P, Wesołowski PA, Zeller F. CREST-A program for the exploration of low-energy molecular chemical space. J Chem Phys 2024; 160:114110. [PMID: 38511658 DOI: 10.1063/5.0197592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2024] [Accepted: 02/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Conformer-rotamer sampling tool (CREST) is an open-source program for the efficient and automated exploration of molecular chemical space. Originally developed in Pracht et al. [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 7169 (2020)] as an automated driver for calculations at the extended tight-binding level (xTB), it offers a variety of molecular- and metadynamics simulations, geometry optimization, and molecular structure analysis capabilities. Implemented algorithms include automated procedures for conformational sampling, explicit solvation studies, the calculation of absolute molecular entropy, and the identification of molecular protonation and deprotonation sites. Calculations are set up to run concurrently, providing efficient single-node parallelization. CREST is designed to require minimal user input and comes with an implementation of the GFNn-xTB Hamiltonians and the GFN-FF force-field. Furthermore, interfaces to any quantum chemistry and force-field software can easily be created. In this article, we present recent developments in the CREST code and show a selection of applications for the most important features of the program. An important novelty is the refactored calculation backend, which provides significant speed-up for sampling of small or medium-sized drug molecules and allows for more sophisticated setups, for example, quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics and minimum energy crossing point calculations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philipp Pracht
- Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, United Kingdom
| | - Stefan Grimme
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Christoph Bannwarth
- Institute for Physical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Melatener Str. 20, 52056 Aachen, Germany
| | - Fabian Bohle
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Sebastian Ehlert
- AI4Science, Microsoft Research, Evert van de Beekstraat 354, 1118 CZ Schiphol, The Netherlands
| | - Gereon Feldmann
- Institute for Physical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Melatener Str. 20, 52056 Aachen, Germany
| | - Johannes Gorges
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Marcel Müller
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Tim Neudecker
- Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
| | - Christoph Plett
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstr. 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | | | - Pit Steinbach
- Institute for Physical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Melatener Str. 20, 52056 Aachen, Germany
| | - Patryk A Wesołowski
- Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, United Kingdom
| | - Felix Zeller
- Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
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