Abstract
A computational model was developed to examine the phototriggered
folding of a caged protein, a protein modified with an organic
photolabile cross-linker. Molecular dynamics simulations of the
modified 36-residue fragment of subdomain B of chicken villin head
piece with a photolabile linker were performed, starting from both the
caged and the uncaged structures. Construction of a free-energy
landscape, based on principal components as well as on radius of
gyration versus root-mean-square deviation, and circular dichroism
calculations were employed to characterize folding behavior and
structures. The folded structures observed in the molecular dynamics
trajectories were found to be similar to that of the wild-type protein,
in agreement with the published experimental results. The free-energy
landscapes of the modified and wild-type proteins have similar
topology, suggesting common thermodynamic/kinetic behavior. The
existence of small differences in the free-energy surface of the
modified protein from that of the native protein, however, indicates
subtle differences in the folding behavior.
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