Prevalence and mechanism of synergistic carboxylate-cation-water interactions in halophilic proteins.

ABSTRACT: The cytoplasmic proteins of some halophilic organisms remain stable and functional at multimolar concentrations of KCl, i.e., under conditions that most mesophilic proteins cannot withstand. Their stability arises from their unusual amino acid composition. The most dramatic difference between halophilic and mesophilic proteins is that the former are rich in acidic amino acids. It has been proposed that one of the evolutionary driving forces for this difference is the occurrence of synergistic interactions between multiple acidic amino acids at the surface of the protein, the potassium cations in solution, and water. We investigate this possibility with molecular dynamics simulations, using high-quality force fields for the protein-water, protein-ion, and ion-ion interactions. We create a r

SUBMITTER: Geraili Daronkola H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10323026 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature