Statistical Thermodynamics for Actin-Myosin Binding: The Crucial Importance of Hydration Effects.

ABSTRACT: Actomyosin is an important molecular motor, and the binding of actin and myosin is an essential research target in biophysics. Nevertheless, the physical factors driving or opposing the binding are still unclear. Here, we investigate the role of water in actin-myosin binding using the most reliable statistical-mechanical method currently available for assessing biomolecules immersed in water. This method is characterized as follows: water is treated not as a dielectric continuum but as an ensemble of molecules; the polyatomic structures of proteins are taken into consideration; and the binding free energy is decomposed into physically insightful entropic and energetic components by accounting for the hydration effect to its full extent. We find that the actin-myosin binding brings large ga

SUBMITTER: Oshima H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4906361 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature