Probing the Structural Dynamics of the NMDA Receptor Activation by Coarse-Grained Modeling.

ABSTRACT: N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are glutamate-gated excitatory channels that play essential roles in brain functions. High-resolution structures have been solved for an allosterically inhibited and agonist-bound form of a functional NMDA receptor; however, other key functional states (particularly the active open-channel state) were only resolved at moderate resolutions by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). To decrypt the mechanism of the NMDA receptor activation, structural modeling is essential to provide presently missing information about structural dynamics. We performed systematic coarse-grained modeling using an elastic network model and related modeling/analysis tools (e.g., normal mode analysis, flexibility and hotspot analysis, cryo-EM flexible fitting, and transition path

SUBMITTER: Zheng W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5479051 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature