Structure and dynamics of a dizinc metalloprotein: Effect of charge transfer and polarization

Yong L. Li, Ye Mei, Da W. Zhang, Dai Q. Xie, John Z.H. Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Structures and dynamics of a recently designed dizinc metalloprotein (DFsc)(J. Mol. Biol.2003, 334, 1101) are studied by molecular dynamics simulation using a dynamically adapted polarized force field derived from fragment quantum calculation for protein in solvent. To properly describe the effect of charge transfer and polarization in the present approach, quantum chemistry calculation of the zinc-binding group is periodically performed (on-the-fly) to update the atomic charges of the zinc-binding group during the MD simulation. Comparison of the present result with those obtained from simulations under standard AMBER force field reveals that charge transfer and polarization are critical to maintaining the correct asymmetric metal coordination in the DFsc. Detailed analysis of the result also shows that dynamic fluctuation of the zinc-binding group facilitates solvent interaction with the zinc ions. In particular, the dynamic fluctuation of the zinc - zinc distance is shown to be an important feature of the catalytic function of the di-ion zinc-binding group. Our study demonstrates that the dynamically adapted polarization approach is computationally practical and can be used to study other metalloprotein systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)10154-10162
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry B
Volume115
Issue number33
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 25 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Surfaces, Coatings and Films
  • Materials Chemistry

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