二维蛋白质模型分子在折叠过程中的构象研究

蛋白质在折叠过程中其构象要发生明显变化 .采用精确计数法 ,计算了在蛋白质折叠的不同阶段其尺寸大小及其分布情况 .发现在折叠的初期 ,分子的尺寸比较大 ,其分布也比较宽 .在折叠的后期 ,分子的尺寸比较小 ,其分布比较窄 .不同的氨基酸序列 ,其分子尺寸的分布也不同 .对于可折叠的氨基酸序列 ,在平均尺寸大小附近出现的几率特别大 .同时还计算了比值SN DN.这里SN 为可设计序列数目 (Thenumberofdesigningsequences) ,DN 为可设计构象数目 (Thenumberofdesignableconformations) ,并有关系- 1 6 8 4 +0 32 5 5N≤SN DN ≤- 0 86 6 4 +0 312 5N　 (N ≥ 13)通过这些研究以提高对折叠过程的认识     

类蛋白质分子扩散系数的模拟计算

蛋白质分子是一类比较特殊的高分子，一方面它的性质与氨基酸序列密切相关，另一方面其二级结构（如α螺旋以及β折叠等）极大地影响着它的性质．另外它的内部结构又非常紧密，与一般的高分子链完全不同．同时随着计算机技术的发展，计算机模拟日益作为一种有效的手段广泛应用于高分子科学的研究．但是由于蛋白质分子比一般的高分子结构更加复杂，如氨基酸之间有复杂的互相作用等，因此对蛋白质性质的研究往往建立在简化模型的基础上，如基于格点的HP紧密高分子模型等．虽然建立在格点模型上的蛋白质分子和真实的蛋白质分子存在着一定的差异，但基本上能体现蛋白质分子的主要特征，因此把这一类分子称为类蛋白质分子．     

应用ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型研究半胱氨酸二肽构象的性质

ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型是应用于蛋白质体系的原子-键电负性均衡方法(ABEEM)与力场(MM)相结合的浮动电荷模型.该模型能够准确地描述分子在环境变化时的静电极化,并能快速计算气态和溶液多肽的结构和能量.首次应用ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型研究半胱氨酸二肽构象的性质,如构象能、氢键等.此外,应用从头计算HF/6-31G**方法对其性质进行计算.ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型可以快速准确地得到半胱氨酸二肽分子不同稳定构象的性质,其结果可以和从头计算相媲美.以上研究有助于加深对半胱氨酸二肽构象性质的了解,从而也为进一步验证ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型的正确性以及参数的合理性提供可靠的依据.     

新颖的蛋白质格点模型

提出了建立在键长涨落模型基础上的蛋白质格点模型,通过对二维蛋白质分子的构象研究,发现这种蛋白质分子具有更多的紧密接触对、更低的基态能量和更大的平均紧密度.蛋白质分子的构象数与键数目N的关系为:Ω₀～γ^N,这里γ=4.768.同时与二维的正方形蛋白质格点模型进行了比较.     

类蛋白质分子的二级结构对力学行为的影响

采用Kolinski等建立的类蛋白质分子的格点模型,研究了由典型的(HHPPHPP)x重复单元构成、含有α螺旋结构的类蛋白质分子链在拉伸过程中的构象性质和力学行为.发现不同强度的α螺旋相互作用会直接影响其拉伸过程.α螺旋相互作用强的类蛋白质分子链,具有更低的内能,更小的应力,在拉伸过程中更容易失去紧密接触对,同时也更容易被拉成“棒状”结构,但在整个拉伸过程中,α螺旋结构且能保持稳定;还发现类蛋白质分子的链长对拉伸也有影响,对较长的类蛋白质分子链,其内能更低,弹性力更小,自由能更大,紧密接触对的含量比例也更高,而“棒状化”程度较小.这些研究能够帮助我们加深对蛋白质分子的构象和弹性力学行为的理解.     

无序随机多肽组分相关的结构转变的蒙特卡洛模拟:以赖氨酸、谷氨酸和异亮氨酸组成的随机多肽为例

无序蛋白和折叠蛋白二者在结构和序列组成上存在着明显的差异.是疏水相互作用还是静电相互作用诱导了多肽结构的转变?在多肽结构转变过程中,疏水相互作用和静电相互作用各自发挥着什么样的作用?本工作以正(赖氨酸)、负(谷氨酸)和疏水性(异亮氨酸)的三种氨基酸为组分,产生了一系列电中性的无序随机多肽系统.利用全原子模型并采用蒙特卡洛方法进行了大规模计算模拟.结果表明,随着温度升高,多肽将从紧密构象转变到扩展构象.不同的多肽其转变温度依赖于疏水性氨基酸和带电氨基酸的比例.当平均疏水性低于临界疏水性时,转变温度低于室温;当平均疏水性大于临界疏水性时,转变温度高于室温.定量分析发现,临界疏水性数值与生物信息研究的结论是吻合的.此外,统计氨基酸残基之间的接触对数目表明,在多肽结构的转变过程中疏水作用发挥着主要作用.研究结果对蛋白质序列与结构关系的研究具有一定的理论指导意义,期望对基于序列的蛋白质全新设计提供参考.     

甘氨酸从水到有机物水溶液的迁移焓研究

蛋白质是各种生物形态结构和生命活动所依赖的物质基础,在水溶液中蛋白质天然结构的稳定性归结于氨基酸残基之间以及与溶液中其它组分的相互作用．天然环境中存在的众多物质对蛋白质的溶解度、变性行为和解缔等都有很大的影响．为深入了解蛋白质折叠与解折叠过程中的物理化学现象,以氨基酸、肽、酰胺及其衍生物作为蛋白质模型分子的热力学研究引起了广泛重视．     

盐酸胍诱导的变性卵清溶菌酶分子重折叠过程及其各稳定构象态的分布和过渡

采用变性和非变性电泳、 高效凝胶排阻色谱、 内源荧光发射光谱和荧光相图以及生物活性测定等方法, 研究了盐酸胍诱导的变性卵清溶菌酶分子的重折叠过程及此过程中卵清溶菌酶分子各稳定构象态的分布和过渡. 结果表明, 当复性液中盐酸胍浓度分别约为5.0和2.4 mol/L时, 变性卵清溶菌酶分子的重折叠过程各存在1个稳定折叠中间态, 重折叠过程符合"四态模型". 在卵清溶菌酶分子四态重折叠过程基础上, 结合盐酸胍与卵清溶菌酶分子之间的缔合-解离平衡, 给出了一个定量描述变性剂诱导的蛋白质分子复性过程中蛋白质分子复性率随溶液中变性剂浓度变化的方程. 该方程包含2个特征折叠参数, 一个是蛋白质分子从一个稳定构象态过渡到另一个稳定构象态的热力学过渡平衡常数k; 另一个是在此过程中平均每个蛋白质分子所结合的变性剂分子数目m. 通过这2个特征折叠参数能够定量描述盐酸胍诱导的变性卵清溶菌酶完全去折叠态、 折叠中间态和天然态分子随复性液中盐酸胍浓度变化的分布和过渡情况.     

用疏水色谱复性并同时纯化蛋白质的机理及其应用

变性蛋白表面的疏水氨基酸残基有与疏水色谱固定相(STHIC)颗粒相互作用的倾向, 两者之间的疏水相互作用能够抑制变性蛋白分子间的相互聚集. 同时疏水色谱固定相还能在分子水平上给变性蛋白分子提供足够高的能量, 使其瞬时脱水并折叠成其天然构象或不同的折叠中间体. 变性蛋白在疏水界面上的折叠不仅取决于其氨基酸之间的特异性相互作用及疏水色谱固定相的结构, 而且还取决于固定相和流动相之间的协同作用. 同时, 还提出了高效疏水相互色谱(HPHIC)进行蛋白折叠的机理及其进行蛋白折叠时能实现质量控制的原理. 在适当的色谱条件下, HPHIC 可使几种变性蛋白一步实现复性及同时纯化. 此外, 还设计制造出了直径比柱长大得多的实验室型和制备型“变性蛋白复性及同时纯化装置, USRPP”, 该“装置”具有完全除去变性剂、使蛋白质复性, 与杂蛋白分离及易于回收变性剂的“一石四鸟”功能. 该“装置”对变性蛋白的复性和纯化效率与通常使用的长柱相当. 在制备规模情况下, 该“装置”可以在低压梯度条件下简便、快速、而经济地应用于重组蛋白药物的制备. 文中以重组人干扰素-γ为例, 说明了制备型“装置”在其复性及同时纯化生产工艺中的应用.     

二维HP格点模型中的紧密高分子链构象及其热力学性质的研究

采用二维HP模型用精确计数法和MonteCarlo方法研究了链长为N(≤ 2 2 )的紧密高分子链的构象和热力学性质 .发现不同HP序列的紧密高分子链的平均自由能和平均配分函数与链长N存在关系 :〈F〉=aN+b ,　ln〈Z〉=a′N +b′ .同时发现对于可折叠成基态且简并度为 1的紧密高分子链 ,其平均自由能和平均配分函数与链长N也存在相似的关系 .在HP模型中对于链长为N的紧密高分子链 ,存在着 2 N + 1 个不同的HP序列 .我们发现可以折叠成基态且简并度为 1的蛋白质分子的HP序列数目NS 为NS =a× 2 N+ 1 　 (a =0 0 2 5 ) ,对应的HP序列中 ,疏水基团 (H)数目的含量为 4 0 %～ 6 0 %的序列出现的几率最大 .同时在这些紧密高分子链中有些具有相同的结构 ,发现结构的‘简并度’为 3 3～ 4 0 (10≤N≤ 16 ) .在紧密高分子链折叠过程中 ,折叠的初期能量下降比较快 ,折叠的中期能量下降比较缓慢 ,折叠的后期能量下降也是比较快     

THE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION OF RESIDUE-RESIDUE CONTACTS IN PROTEIN MOLECULES

In protein molecules each residue has a different ability to form contacts.In this paper,we calculated the number of contacts per residue and investigated the distribution of residue-residue contacts from 495 globular protein molecules using Contacts of Structural Units(CSU)software.It was found that the probability P(n)of amino acid residues having n pairs of contacts in all contacts fits Gaussian distribution very well.The distribution function of residue-residue contacts can be expressed as:P(n)=P_0+aexp[-b(n-n_c)~2].In our calculation,P_0=-0.06,α=11.4,b=-0.04 and n_c=9.0.According to distribution function,we found that those hydrophobic(H)residues including Leu,Val,Ile,Met,Phe,Tyr,Cys,and Trp residues have large values of the most probable number of contact n_c,and hydrophilic(P)residues including Ala,Gly,Thr, His,Glu,Gln,Asp,Asn,Lys,Ser,Arg,and Pro residues have the small ones.We also compare with Fauchere-Pliska hydrophobicity scale(FPH)and the most probable number of contact n_c for 20 amino acid residues,and find that there exists a linear relationship between Fauchere-Pliska hydrophobicity scale(FPH)and the most probable number of contact n_c, and it is expressed as:n_c=a+b×FPH,here α=8.87,and b=1.15.It is important to further explain protein folding and its stability from residue-residue contacts.     

(α/β)_8桶状蛋白质中紧密接触对的统计性质研究

在计算蛋白质分子中的氨基酸紧密接触对时采用以氨基酸的重心代替Cα 原子的新方法 ,通过计算(α/β) 8桶状蛋白质中的中程和远程紧密接触对的数目 ,研究了不同氨基酸在形成紧密接触对时所具有的不同能力以及在蛋白质结构稳定性中所起的不同作用 .发现在 (α β) 8桶状蛋白质中氨基酸形成的远程紧密接触对数目与它的Fauchere Pliska疏水性实验数值 (FPH)存在着非常好的线性关系 ,而对于氨基酸所形成的中程紧密接触对数目不存在这种关系 .同时还研究了 (α β) 8桶状蛋白质分子大小 ,发现其回转半径大小与表示远程接触对数目的远程次序值LRO存在着关系 .表明这一类 (α β) 8桶状蛋白质具有相似的结构 ,分子的远程接触对数目越多 ,分子越紧密 ,分子尺寸就越小 .同时还研究了不同氨基酸之间形成紧密接触对的能力 .     

STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF LONG-RANGE CONTACTS IN GLOBULAR PROTEINS

The analysis of residue-residue contacts in protein structures can shed some light on our understanding of the folding and stability of proteins. In this paper, we study the statistical properties of long-range and short-range residue-residue contacts of 91 globular proteins using CSU software and analyze the importance of long-range contacts in globular protein structure. There are many short-range and long-range contacts in globular proteins, and it is found that the average number of long-range contacts per residue is 5.63 and the percentage of residue-residue contacts which are involved in long-range ones is 59.4%. In more detail, the distribution of long-range contacts in different residue intervals is investigated and it is found that the residues occurring in the interval range of 4-10 residues apart in the sequence contribute more long-range contacts to the stability of globular protein. The number of long-range contacts per residue, which is a measure of ability toform residue-residue contacts, is also calculated for 20 different amino acid residues. It is shown that hydrophobic residues (including Leu, Val, Ile, Met, Phe, Tyr, Cys and Trp) having a large number of long-range contacts easily form long-range contacts, while the hydrophilic amino acids (including Ala, Gly, Thr, His, Glu, Gln, Asp, Asn, Lys, Ser, Arg, and Pro) form long-range contacts with more difficulty. The relationship between the Fauchere-Pliska hydrophobicity scale (FPH) and the number of short-range and long-range contacts per residue for 20 amino acid residues is also studied. An approximately linear relationship between the Fauchere-Pliska hydrophobicity scale (FPH) and the number of long-range contacts per residue CL is found and can be expressed as     

Polymer collapse, protein folding, and the percolation threshold

We study the transition of polymers in the dilute regime from a swollen shape at high temperatures to their low-temperature structures. The polymers are modeled by a single self-avoiding walk (SAW) on a lattice for which l of the monomers (the H monomers) are self-attracting, i.e., if two nonbonded H monomers become nearest neighbors on the lattice they gain energy of interaction (epsilon = -/epsilon/); the second type of monomers, denoted P, are neutral. This HP model was suggested by Lau and Dill (Macromolecules 1989, 22, 3986-3997) to study protein folding, where H and P are the hydrophobic and polar amino acid residues, respectively. The model is simulated on the square and simple cubic (SC) lattices using the scanning method. We show that the ground state and the sharpness of the transition depend on the lattice, the fraction g of the H monomers, as well as on their arrangement along the chain. In particular, if the H monomers are distributed at random and g is larger than the site percolation threshold of the lattice, a collapsed transition is very likely to occur. This conclusion, drawn for the lattice models, is also applicable to proteins where an effective lattice with coordination number between that of the SC lattice and the body centered cubic lattice is defined. Thus, the average fraction of hydrophobic amino acid residues in globular proteins is found to be close to the percolation threshold of the effective lattice.     

RATE OF INTRA-MOLECULAR CONTACT FORMATION IN SHORT TWO-DIMENSIONAL COMPACT POLYMERS CHAINS

It is important to know the rate of intra-molecular contact formation in proteins in order to understand how proteins fold clearly. Here we investigate the rate of intra-molecular contact formation in short two-dimensional compact polymer chains by calculating the probability distribution p(r) of end-to-end distance r using the enumeration calculation method and HP model on two-dimensional square lattice. The probability distribution of end-to-end distance p(r) of short two-dimensional compact polymers chains may consist of two parts, i.e. p(r) = p1(r) p2(r), where p1(r) and p2(r) are different for small r. The rate of contact formation decreases monotonically with the number of bonds N, and the rate approximately conforms to the scaling relation of k(N) ∝ N-α. Here the value of α increases with the contact radius a and it also depends on the percentage of H (hydrophobic) residues in the sequences of compact chains and the energy parameters of εHH, εHP and εPP . Some comparisons of theoretical predictions with experimental results are also made. This investigation may help us to understand the protein folding.     

Contact pair dynamics during folding of two small proteins: chicken villin head piece and the Alzheimer protein beta-amyloid

The folding of an extended protein to its unique native state requires establishment of specific, predetermined, often distant, contacts between amino acid residue pairs. The dynamics of contact pair formation between various hydrophobic residues during folding of two different small proteins, the chicken villin head piece (HP-36) and the Alzheimer protein beta-amyloid (betaA-40), are investigated by Brownian dynamics (BD) simulations. These two proteins represent two very different classes-HP-36 being globular while betaA-40 is nonglobular, stringlike. Hydropathy scale and nonlocal helix propensity of amino acids are used to model the complex interaction potential among the various amino acid residues. The minimalistic model we use here employs a connected backbone chain of atoms of equal size while an amino acid is attached to each backbone atom as an additional atom of differing sizes and interaction parameters, determined by the characteristics of each amino acid. Even for such simple models, we find that the low-energy structures obtained by BD simulations of both the model proteins mimic the native state of the real protein rather well, with a best root-mean-square deviation of 4.5 A for HP-36. For betaA-40 (where a single well-defined structure is not available), the simulated structures resemble the reported ensemble rather well, with the well-known beta-bend correctly reproduced. We introduce and calculate a contact pair distance time correlation function, C(P) (ij)(t), to quantify the dynamical evolution of the pair contact formation between the amino acid residue pairs i and j. The contact pair time correlation function exhibits multistage dynamics, including a two stage fast collapse, followed by a slow (microsecond long) late stage dynamics for several specific pairs. The slow late stage dynamics is in accordance with the findings of Sali et al. Analysis of the individual trajectories shows that the slow decay is due to the attempt of the protein to form energetically more favorable pair contacts to replace the less favorable ones. This late stage contact formation is a highly cooperative process, involving participation of several pairs and thus entropically unfavorable and expected to face a large free energy barrier. This is because any new pair contact formation among hydrophobic pairs will require breaking of several contacts, before the favorable ones can be formed. This aspect of protein folding dynamics is similar to relaxation in glassy liquids, where also alpha relaxation requires highly cooperative process of hopping. The present analysis suggests that waiting time for the necessary pair contact formation may obey the Poissonian distribution. We also study the dynamics of Forster energy transfer during folding between two tagged amino acid pairs. This dynamics can be studied by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). It is found that suitably placed donor-acceptor pairs can capture the slow dynamics during folding. The dynamics probed by FRET is predicted to be nonexponential.     

Pathways to folding, nucleation events, and native geometry

We perform extensive Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice model and the Gō potential [N. Gō and H. Taketomi, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 75, 559563 (1978)] to investigate the existence of folding pathways at the level of contact cluster formation for two native structures with markedly different geometries. Our analysis of folding pathways revealed a common underlying folding mechanism, based on nucleation phenomena, for both protein models. However, folding to the more complex geometry (i.e., that with more nonlocal contacts) is driven by a folding nucleus whose geometric traits more closely resemble those of the native fold. For this geometry folding is clearly a more cooperative process.     

Heuristic energy landscape paving for protein folding problem in the three-dimensional HP lattice model

The protein folding problem, i.e., the prediction of the tertiary structures of protein molecules from their amino acid sequences is one of the most important problems in computational biology and biochemistry. However, the extremely difficult optimization problem arising from energy function is a key challenge in protein folding simulation. The energy landscape paving (ELP) method has already been applied very successfully to off-lattice protein models and other optimization problems with complex energy landscape in continuous space. By improving the ELP method, and subsequently incorporating the neighborhood strategy with the pull-move set into the improved ELP method, a heuristic ELP algorithm is proposed to find low-energy conformations of 3D HP lattice model proteins in the discrete space. The algorithm is tested on three sets of 3D HP benchmark instances consisting 31 sequences. For eleven sequences with 27 monomers, the proposed method explores the conformation surfaces more efficiently than other methods, and finds new lower energies in several cases. For ten 48-monomer sequences, we find the lowest energies so far. With the achieved results, the algorithm converges rapidly and efficiently. For all ten 64-monomer sequences, the algorithm finds lower energies within comparable computation times than previous methods. Numeric results show that the heuristic ELP method is a competitive tool for protein folding simulation in 3D lattice model. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of ELP to the 3D discrete space.     

类蛋白质分子形成紧密接触对的速率研究

采用Kolinski等建立的类蛋白质分子的格点模型,通过计算类蛋白质分子的末端距分布函数P(r)来研究类蛋白质分子形成紧密接触对的速率k .发现不同的氨基酸序列,其分布函数P(r)不同.对于序列(H) x和(P) x,分布函数P(r)有二个峰值;而对于序列(HP) x,分布函数P(r)只有一个峰值.对于类蛋白质分子形成紧密接触对的速率k ,当链长N <11,随着N的增加而增加;当N >11,形成紧密接触对的速率k随着N的增加而减少,这个趋势与实验结果一致,并存在关系k～N-α(N >11) ,系数α与氨基酸序列有关.这些研究能够帮助我们加深对蛋白质结构形成的了解.     

球状蛋白质分子中氨基酸紧密接触对性质的研究

采用CSU软件 (Contactsofstructuralunits) ,对 61种球状蛋白质分子中氨基酸紧密接触对 (Residue residuecontact)进行了研究 .重点研究了不同氨基酸在形成远程紧密接触对 (Long rangecontact)和近程紧密接触对 (Short rangecontact)时的不同能力 .发现氨基酸Leu,Val,Ile,Met,Phe,Tyr,Cys,Trp(疏性氨基酸 ,H)比较容易形成远程紧密接触对 ,氨基酸Glu,Gln ,Asp ,Asn,Lys,Ser,Arg,Pro(亲水氨基酸 ,P)比较难形成远程紧密接触对 ,而氨基酸Ala,Gly,Thr,His(中性氨基酸 ,N)在形成远程紧密接触对时能力一般 .它们平均每个氨基酸可形成 6 0 3 ,3 64和 4 43个远程紧密接触对 .同时它们在形成近程紧密接触对时能力非常接近 ,平均每个氨基酸可形成的近程紧密接触对数目在 2 3 4～ 2 85变化 ,差别非常小 .亲水氨基酸 (P) ,中性氨基酸 (N)和疏水性氨基酸 (H)在蛋白质分子结构稳定性上起着不同的作用