Directional Force Originating from ATP Hydrolysis Drives the GroEL Conformational Change.

ABSTRACT: Protein functional mechanisms usually require conformational changes, and often there are known structures for the different conformational states. However, usually neither the origin of the driving force nor the underlying pathways for these conformational transitions is known. Exothermic chemical reactions may be an important source of forces that drive conformational changes. Here we investigate this type of force originating from ATP hydrolysis in the chaperonin GroEL, by applying forces originating from the chemical reaction. Specifically, we apply directed forces to drive the GroEL conformational changes and learn that there is a highly specific direction for applied forces to drive the closed form to the open form. For this purpose, we utilize coarse-grained elastic network models.

SUBMITTER: Liu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5406283 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature