1
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Jamali K, Käll L, Zhang R, Brown A, Kimanius D, Scheres SHW. Automated model building and protein identification in cryo-EM maps. Nature 2024; 628:450-457. [PMID: 38408488 PMCID: PMC11006616 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07215-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024]
Abstract
Interpreting electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) maps with atomic models requires high levels of expertise and labour-intensive manual intervention in three-dimensional computer graphics programs1,2. Here we present ModelAngelo, a machine-learning approach for automated atomic model building in cryo-EM maps. By combining information from the cryo-EM map with information from protein sequence and structure in a single graph neural network, ModelAngelo builds atomic models for proteins that are of similar quality to those generated by human experts. For nucleotides, ModelAngelo builds backbones with similar accuracy to those built by humans. By using its predicted amino acid probabilities for each residue in hidden Markov model sequence searches, ModelAngelo outperforms human experts in the identification of proteins with unknown sequences. ModelAngelo will therefore remove bottlenecks and increase objectivity in cryo-EM structure determination.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lukas Käll
- Science for Life Laboratory, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Rui Zhang
- Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA
| | - Alan Brown
- Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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2
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Callaway E. These 'movies' of proteins in action are revealing the hidden biology of cells. Nature 2024; 627:480-482. [PMID: 38509281 DOI: 10.1038/d41586-024-00817-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/22/2024]
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3
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Eisenstein M. Soft-landing methods aim to simplify structural biology. Nature 2023; 622:658-660. [PMID: 37845529 DOI: 10.1038/d41586-023-03236-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2023]
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4
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Watson JL, Juergens D, Bennett NR, Trippe BL, Yim J, Eisenach HE, Ahern W, Borst AJ, Ragotte RJ, Milles LF, Wicky BIM, Hanikel N, Pellock SJ, Courbet A, Sheffler W, Wang J, Venkatesh P, Sappington I, Torres SV, Lauko A, De Bortoli V, Mathieu E, Ovchinnikov S, Barzilay R, Jaakkola TS, DiMaio F, Baek M, Baker D. De novo design of protein structure and function with RFdiffusion. Nature 2023; 620:1089-1100. [PMID: 37433327 PMCID: PMC10468394 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06415-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 108] [Impact Index Per Article: 108.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023]
Abstract
There has been considerable recent progress in designing new proteins using deep-learning methods1-9. Despite this progress, a general deep-learning framework for protein design that enables solution of a wide range of design challenges, including de novo binder design and design of higher-order symmetric architectures, has yet to be described. Diffusion models10,11 have had considerable success in image and language generative modelling but limited success when applied to protein modelling, probably due to the complexity of protein backbone geometry and sequence-structure relationships. Here we show that by fine-tuning the RoseTTAFold structure prediction network on protein structure denoising tasks, we obtain a generative model of protein backbones that achieves outstanding performance on unconditional and topology-constrained protein monomer design, protein binder design, symmetric oligomer design, enzyme active site scaffolding and symmetric motif scaffolding for therapeutic and metal-binding protein design. We demonstrate the power and generality of the method, called RoseTTAFold diffusion (RFdiffusion), by experimentally characterizing the structures and functions of hundreds of designed symmetric assemblies, metal-binding proteins and protein binders. The accuracy of RFdiffusion is confirmed by the cryogenic electron microscopy structure of a designed binder in complex with influenza haemagglutinin that is nearly identical to the design model. In a manner analogous to networks that produce images from user-specified inputs, RFdiffusion enables the design of diverse functional proteins from simple molecular specifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph L Watson
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - David Juergens
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Graduate Program in Molecular Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Nathaniel R Bennett
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Graduate Program in Molecular Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Brian L Trippe
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Columbia University, Department of Statistics, New York, NY, USA
- Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jason Yim
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Helen E Eisenach
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Woody Ahern
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Andrew J Borst
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Robert J Ragotte
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Lukas F Milles
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Basile I M Wicky
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Nikita Hanikel
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Samuel J Pellock
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Alexis Courbet
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- National Centre for Scientific Research, École Normale Supérieure rue d'Ulm, Paris, France
| | - William Sheffler
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Jue Wang
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Preetham Venkatesh
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Graduate Program in Biological Physics, Structure and Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Isaac Sappington
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Graduate Program in Biological Physics, Structure and Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Susana Vázquez Torres
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Graduate Program in Biological Physics, Structure and Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Anna Lauko
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Graduate Program in Biological Physics, Structure and Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Valentin De Bortoli
- National Centre for Scientific Research, École Normale Supérieure rue d'Ulm, Paris, France
| | - Emile Mathieu
- Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Sergey Ovchinnikov
- Faculty of Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | | | - Frank DiMaio
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Minkyung Baek
- School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - David Baker
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
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5
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Kimanius D, Dong L, Sharov G, Nakane T, Scheres SHW. New tools for automated cryo-EM single-particle analysis in RELION-4.0. Biochem J 2021; 478:4169-4185. [PMID: 34783343 PMCID: PMC8786306 DOI: 10.1042/bcj20210708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 284] [Impact Index Per Article: 94.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2021] [Revised: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
We describe new tools for the processing of electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) images in the fourth major release of the RELION software. In particular, we introduce VDAM, a variable-metric gradient descent algorithm with adaptive moments estimation, for image refinement; a convolutional neural network for unsupervised selection of 2D classes; and a flexible framework for the design and execution of multiple jobs in pre-defined workflows. In addition, we present a stand-alone utility called MDCatch that links the execution of jobs within this framework with metadata gathering during microscope data acquisition. The new tools are aimed at providing fast and robust procedures for unsupervised cryo-EM structure determination, with potential applications for on-the-fly processing and the development of flexible, high-throughput structure determination pipelines. We illustrate their potential on 12 publicly available cryo-EM data sets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dari Kimanius
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
| | - Liyi Dong
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
| | - Grigory Sharov
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
| | - Takanori Nakane
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, CB2 0QH Cambridge, UK
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6
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Alshammari M, He J. Combining Cryo-EM Density Map and Residue Contact for Protein Secondary Structure Topologies. Molecules 2021; 26:7049. [PMID: 34834140 PMCID: PMC8624718 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26227049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2021] [Revised: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Although atomic structures have been determined directly from cryo-EM density maps with high resolutions, current structure determination methods for medium resolution (5 to 10 Å) cryo-EM maps are limited by the availability of structure templates. Secondary structure traces are lines detected from a cryo-EM density map for α-helices and β-strands of a protein. A topology of secondary structures defines the mapping between a set of sequence segments and a set of traces of secondary structures in three-dimensional space. In order to enhance accuracy in ranking secondary structure topologies, we explored a method that combines three sources of information: a set of sequence segments in 1D, a set of amino acid contact pairs in 2D, and a set of traces in 3D at the secondary structure level. A test of fourteen cases shows that the accuracy of predicted secondary structures is critical for deriving topologies. The use of significant long-range contact pairs is most effective at enriching the rank of the maximum-match topology for proteins with a large number of secondary structures, if the secondary structure prediction is fairly accurate. It was observed that the enrichment depends on the quality of initial topology candidates in this approach. We provide detailed analysis in various cases to show the potential and challenge when combining three sources of information.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jing He
- Department of Computer Science, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA;
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7
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Gui M, Farley H, Anujan P, Anderson JR, Maxwell DW, Whitchurch JB, Botsch JJ, Qiu T, Meleppattu S, Singh SK, Zhang Q, Thompson J, Lucas JS, Bingle CD, Norris DP, Roy S, Brown A. De novo identification of mammalian ciliary motility proteins using cryo-EM. Cell 2021; 184:5791-5806.e19. [PMID: 34715025 PMCID: PMC8595878 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.10.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Revised: 08/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Dynein-decorated doublet microtubules (DMTs) are critical components of the oscillatory molecular machine of cilia, the axoneme, and have luminal surfaces patterned periodically by microtubule inner proteins (MIPs). Here we present an atomic model of the 48-nm repeat of a mammalian DMT, derived from a cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) map of the complex isolated from bovine respiratory cilia. The structure uncovers principles of doublet microtubule organization and features specific to vertebrate cilia, including previously unknown MIPs, a luminal bundle of tektin filaments, and a pentameric dynein-docking complex. We identify a mechanism for bridging 48- to 24-nm periodicity across the microtubule wall and show that loss of the proteins involved causes defective ciliary motility and laterality abnormalities in zebrafish and mice. Our structure identifies candidate genes for diagnosis of ciliopathies and provides a framework to understand their functions in driving ciliary motility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miao Gui
- Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Hannah Farley
- MRC Harwell Institute, Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire OX11 0RD, UK
| | - Priyanka Anujan
- Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Proteos, 138673 Singapore, Singapore; Department of Infection, Immunity & Cardiovascular Disease, The Medical School and The Florey Institute for Host Pathogen Interactions, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Jacob R Anderson
- Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Dale W Maxwell
- Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Proteos, 138673 Singapore, Singapore; School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
| | | | - J Josephine Botsch
- Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Tao Qiu
- Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Proteos, 138673 Singapore, Singapore
| | - Shimi Meleppattu
- Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Sandeep K Singh
- Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Qi Zhang
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - James Thompson
- Biomedical Imaging Unit, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK; Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK
| | - Jane S Lucas
- Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia Centre, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK; University of Southampton Faculty of Medicine, School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Southampton, UK
| | - Colin D Bingle
- Department of Infection, Immunity & Cardiovascular Disease, The Medical School and The Florey Institute for Host Pathogen Interactions, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Dominic P Norris
- MRC Harwell Institute, Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire OX11 0RD, UK.
| | - Sudipto Roy
- Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Proteos, 138673 Singapore, Singapore; Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 117543 Singapore, Singapore; Department of Pediatrics, Yong Loo Ling School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 1E Kent Ridge Road, 119288 Singapore, Singapore.
| | - Alan Brown
- Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
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8
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Simpkin AJ, Winn MD, Rigden DJ, Keegan RM. Redeployment of automated MrBUMP search-model identification for map fitting in cryo-EM. Acta Crystallogr D Struct Biol 2021; 77:1378-1385. [PMID: 34726166 PMCID: PMC8561737 DOI: 10.1107/s2059798321009165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In crystallography, the phase problem can often be addressed by the careful preparation of molecular-replacement search models. This has led to the development of pipelines such as MrBUMP that can automatically identify homologous proteins from an input sequence and edit them to focus on the areas that are most conserved. Many of these approaches can be applied directly to cryo-EM to help discover, prepare and correctly place models (here called cryo-EM search models) into electrostatic potential maps. This can significantly reduce the amount of manual model building that is required for structure determination. Here, MrBUMP is repurposed to fit automatically obtained PDB-derived chains and domains into cryo-EM maps. MrBUMP was successfully able to identify and place cryo-EM search models across a range of resolutions. Methods such as map segmentation are also explored as potential routes to improved performance. Map segmentation was also found to improve the effectiveness of the pipeline for higher resolution (<8 Å) data sets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam J. Simpkin
- Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom
| | - Martyn D. Winn
- UKRI–STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Research Complex at Harwell, Didcot OX11 0FA, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel J. Rigden
- Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom
| | - Ronan M. Keegan
- UKRI–STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Research Complex at Harwell, Didcot OX11 0FA, United Kingdom
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9
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Wang S, Jiang M, Zhang S, Wang X, Yuan Q, Wei Z, Li Z. MCN-CPI: Multiscale Convolutional Network for Compound-Protein Interaction Prediction. Biomolecules 2021; 11:1119. [PMID: 34439785 PMCID: PMC8392217 DOI: 10.3390/biom11081119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2021] [Revised: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
In the process of drug discovery, identifying the interaction between the protein and the novel compound plays an important role. With the development of technology, deep learning methods have shown excellent performance in various situations. However, the compound-protein interaction is complicated and the features extracted by most deep models are not comprehensive, which limits the performance to a certain extent. In this paper, we proposed a multiscale convolutional network that extracted the local and global features of the protein and the topological feature of the compound using different types of convolutional networks. The results showed that our model obtained the best performance compared with the existing deep learning methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuang Wang
- College of Computer Science and Technology, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, China;
| | - Mingjian Jiang
- School of Information and Control Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266520, China;
| | - Shugang Zhang
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China; (S.Z.); (X.W.); (Q.Y.); (Z.W.)
| | - Xiaofeng Wang
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China; (S.Z.); (X.W.); (Q.Y.); (Z.W.)
| | - Qing Yuan
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China; (S.Z.); (X.W.); (Q.Y.); (Z.W.)
| | - Zhiqiang Wei
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China; (S.Z.); (X.W.); (Q.Y.); (Z.W.)
| | - Zhen Li
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China
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10
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Niina T, Matsunaga Y, Takada S. Rigid-body fitting to atomic force microscopy images for inferring probe shape and biomolecular structure. PLoS Comput Biol 2021; 17:e1009215. [PMID: 34283829 PMCID: PMC8323932 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2021] [Revised: 07/30/2021] [Accepted: 06/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can visualize functional biomolecules near the physiological condition, but the observed data are limited to the surface height of specimens. Since the AFM images highly depend on the probe tip shape, for successful inference of molecular structures from the measurement, the knowledge of the probe shape is required, but is often missing. Here, we developed a method of the rigid-body fitting to AFM images, which simultaneously finds the shape of the probe tip and the placement of the molecular structure via an exhaustive search. First, we examined four similarity scores via twin-experiments for four test proteins, finding that the cosine similarity score generally worked best, whereas the pixel-RMSD and the correlation coefficient were also useful. We then applied the method to two experimental high-speed-AFM images inferring the probe shape and the molecular placement. The results suggest that the appropriate similarity score can differ between target systems. For an actin filament image, the cosine similarity apparently worked best. For an image of the flagellar protein FlhAC, we found the correlation coefficient gave better results. This difference may partly be attributed to the flexibility in the target molecule, ignored in the rigid-body fitting. The inferred tip shape and placement results can be further refined by other methods, such as the flexible fitting molecular dynamics simulations. The developed software is publicly available. Observation of functional dynamics of individual biomolecules is important to understand molecular mechanisms of cellular phenomena. High-speed (HS) atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool that enables us to visualize the real-time dynamics of working biomolecules under near-physiological conditions. However, the information available by the AFM images is limited to the two-dimensional surface shape detected via the force to the probe. While the surface information is affected by the shape of the probe tip, the probe shape itself cannot be directly measured before each AFM measurement. To overcome this problem, we have developed a computational method to simultaneously infer the probe tip shape and the molecular placement from an AFM image. We show that our method successfully estimates the effective AFM tip shape and visualizes a structure with a more accurate placement. The estimation of a molecular placement with the correct probe tip shape enables us to obtain more insights into functional dynamics of the molecule from HS-AFM images.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toru Niina
- Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Yasuhiro Matsunaga
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan
| | - Shoji Takada
- Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
- * E-mail:
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11
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Liu Y, Yu J, Wang M, Zeng Q, Fu X, Chang Z. A high-throughput genetically directed protein crosslinking analysis reveals the physiological relevance of the ATP synthase 'inserted' state. FEBS J 2021; 288:2989-3009. [PMID: 33128817 DOI: 10.1111/febs.15616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2020] [Revised: 10/07/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
ATP synthase, a highly conserved protein complex that has a subunit composition of α3 β3 γδεab2 c8-15 for the bacterial enzyme, is a key player in supplying energy to living organisms. This protein complex consists of a peripheral F1 sector (α3 β3 γδε) and a membrane-integrated Fo sector (ab2 c8-15 ). Structural analyses of the isolated protein components revealed that, remarkably, the C-terminal domain of its ε-subunit seems to adopt two dramatically different structures, but the physiological relevance of this conformational change remains largely unknown. In an attempt to decipher this, we developed a high-throughput in vivo protein photo-cross-linking analysis pipeline based on the introduction of the unnatural amino acid into the target protein via the scarless genome-targeted site-directed mutagenesis technique, and probing the cross-linked products via the high-throughput polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis technique. Employing this pipeline, we examined the interactions involving the C-terminal helix of the ε-subunit in cells living under a variety of experimental conditions. These studies enabled us to uncover that the bacterial ATP synthase exists as an equilibrium between the 'inserted' and 'noninserted' state in cells, maintaining a moderate but significant level of net ATP synthesis when shifting to the former upon exposing to unfavorable energetically stressful conditions. Such a mechanism allows the bacterial ATP synthases to proportionally and instantly switch between two reversible functional states in responding to changing environmental conditions. Importantly, this high-throughput approach could allow us to decipher the physiological relevance of protein-protein interactions identified under in vitro conditions or to unveil novel physiological context-dependent protein-protein interactions that are unknown before.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences, Center for Protein Science, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jiayu Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences, Center for Protein Science, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Mengyuan Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences, Center for Protein Science, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Qingfang Zeng
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences, Center for Protein Science, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Xinmiao Fu
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences, Center for Protein Science, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Zengyi Chang
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences, Center for Protein Science, Peking University, Beijing, China
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12
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McCafferty CL, Taylor DW, Marcotte EM. Improving integrative 3D modeling into low- to medium-resolution electron microscopy structures with evolutionary couplings. Protein Sci 2021; 30:1006-1021. [PMID: 33759266 PMCID: PMC8040867 DOI: 10.1002/pro.4067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2021] [Revised: 03/16/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Electron microscopy (EM) continues to provide near-atomic resolution structures for well-behaved proteins and protein complexes. Unfortunately, structures of some complexes are limited to low- to medium-resolution due to biochemical or conformational heterogeneity. Thus, the application of unbiased systematic methods for fitting individual structures into EM maps is important. A method that employs co-evolutionary information obtained solely from sequence data could prove invaluable for quick, confident localization of subunits within these structures. Here, we incorporate the co-evolution of intermolecular amino acids as a new type of distance restraint in the integrative modeling platform in order to build three-dimensional models of atomic structures into EM maps ranging from 10-14 Å in resolution. We validate this method using four complexes of known structure, where we highlight the conservation of intermolecular couplings despite dynamic conformational changes using the BAM complex. Finally, we use this method to assemble the subunits of the bacterial holo-translocon into a model that agrees with previous biochemical data. The use of evolutionary couplings in integrative modeling improves systematic, unbiased fitting of atomic models into medium- to low-resolution EM maps, providing additional information to integrative models lacking in spatial data.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - David W. Taylor
- Department of Molecular BiosciencesUniversity of Texas at AustinAustinTexasUSA
- Center for Systems and Synthetic BiologyUniversity of Texas at AustinAustinTexasUSA
- LIVESTRONG Cancer InstitutesDell Medical SchoolAustinTexasUSA
| | - Edward M. Marcotte
- Department of Molecular BiosciencesUniversity of Texas at AustinAustinTexasUSA
- Center for Systems and Synthetic BiologyUniversity of Texas at AustinAustinTexasUSA
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13
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George B, Assaiya A, Roy RJ, Kembhavi A, Chauhan R, Paul G, Kumar J, Philip NS. CASSPER is a semantic segmentation-based particle picking algorithm for single-particle cryo-electron microscopy. Commun Biol 2021; 4:200. [PMID: 33589717 PMCID: PMC7884729 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-01721-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2020] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Particle identification and selection, which is a prerequisite for high-resolution structure determination of biological macromolecules via single-particle cryo-electron microscopy poses a major bottleneck for automating the steps of structure determination. Here, we present a generalized deep learning tool, CASSPER, for the automated detection and isolation of protein particles in transmission microscope images. This deep learning tool uses Semantic Segmentation and a collection of visually prepared training samples to capture the differences in the transmission intensities of protein, ice, carbon, and other impurities found in the micrograph. CASSPER is a semantic segmentation based method that does pixel-level classification and completely eliminates the need for manual particle picking. Integration of Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) in CASSPER enables high-fidelity particle detection in micrographs with variable ice thickness and contrast. A generalized CASSPER model works with high efficiency on unseen datasets and can potentially pick particles on-the-fly, enabling data processing automation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Blesson George
- Artificial Intelligence Research and Intelligent Systems (airis4D), Thelliyoor, Kerala, India
- Department of Physics, CMS College, Kottayam, Kerala, India
| | - Anshul Assaiya
- Laboratory of Membrane Protein Biology, National Centre for Cell Science, S. P. Pune University Campus, Pune, India
| | - Robin J Roy
- Artificial Intelligence Research and Intelligent Systems (airis4D), Thelliyoor, Kerala, India
| | - Ajit Kembhavi
- Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), S. P. Pune University Campus, Pune, India
| | - Radha Chauhan
- Laboratory of Structural Biology, National Centre for Cell Science, S. P. Pune University Campus, Pune, India
| | - Geetha Paul
- Artificial Intelligence Research and Intelligent Systems (airis4D), Thelliyoor, Kerala, India
| | - Janesh Kumar
- Laboratory of Membrane Protein Biology, National Centre for Cell Science, S. P. Pune University Campus, Pune, India.
| | - Ninan S Philip
- Artificial Intelligence Research and Intelligent Systems (airis4D), Thelliyoor, Kerala, India.
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14
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Abstract
The goal of structural biology is to understand biological macromolecules in as much detail as possible. Depending on the resolution of the structure obtained, insights will range from understanding interactions at the level of proteins, domains, or atoms. The three mainstay structural biology techniques are X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging, and cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Cryo-EM has rapidly gained popularity in recent years due to a combination of hardware and software advances, leading to the so-called Resolution Revolution (Kühlbrandt, 2014).
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong Zi Tan
- Molecular Medicine Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Bridget Carragher
- National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY 10027, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
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15
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Amyot R, Flechsig H. BioAFMviewer: An interactive interface for simulated AFM scanning of biomolecular structures and dynamics. PLoS Comput Biol 2020; 16:e1008444. [PMID: 33206646 PMCID: PMC7710046 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Revised: 12/02/2020] [Accepted: 10/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
We provide a stand-alone software, the BioAFMviewer, which transforms biomolecular structures into the graphical representation corresponding to the outcome of atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments. The AFM graphics is obtained by performing simulated scanning over the molecular structure encoded in the corresponding PDB file. A versatile molecular viewer integrates the visualization of PDB structures and control over their orientation, while synchronized simulated scanning with variable spatial resolution and tip-shape geometry produces the corresponding AFM graphics. We demonstrate the applicability of the BioAFMviewer by comparing simulated AFM graphics to high-speed AFM observations of proteins. The software can furthermore process molecular movies of conformational motions, e.g. those obtained from servers which model functional transitions within a protein, and produce the corresponding simulated AFM movie. The BioAFMviewer software provides the platform to employ the plethora of structural and dynamical data of proteins in order to help in the interpretation of biomolecular AFM experiments. Nowadays nanotechnology allows to observe single proteins at work. Under atomic force microscopy (AFM), e.g., their surface can be rapidly scanned and functional motions monitored, which is of great importance for applications in all fields of Life science. The analysis and interpretation of experimental results remains however challenging, because the resolution of obtained images or molecular movies is far from perfect. On the other side, high-resolution static structures of most proteins are known and their conformational dynamics can be computed in molecular simulations. This enormous amount of available data offers a great opportunity to better understand the outcome of resolution-limited scanning experiments. Our software provides the computational package towards this goal. The BioAFMviewer computationally emulates the scanning of any biomolecular structure to produce graphical images that mimic the outcome of AFM experiments. This makes the comparison of all available structural data and computational molecular movies to AFM results possible. We demonstrate that simulated AFM images are of great value to facilitate the interpretation of high-speed AFM observations. With its versatile interactive interface and rich functionality, the BioAFMviewer provides a convenient platform for the broad Bio-AFM community to better understand experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romain Amyot
- Department of Mathematical and Life Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
| | - Holger Flechsig
- Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
- * E-mail:
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16
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Flygaard RK, Mühleip A, Tobiasson V, Amunts A. Type III ATP synthase is a symmetry-deviated dimer that induces membrane curvature through tetramerization. Nat Commun 2020; 11:5342. [PMID: 33093501 PMCID: PMC7583250 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18993-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2020] [Accepted: 09/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Mitochondrial ATP synthases form functional homodimers to induce cristae curvature that is a universal property of mitochondria. To expand on the understanding of this fundamental phenomenon, we characterized the unique type III mitochondrial ATP synthase in its dimeric and tetrameric form. The cryo-EM structure of a ciliate ATP synthase dimer reveals an unusual U-shaped assembly of 81 proteins, including a substoichiometrically bound ATPTT2, 40 lipids, and co-factors NAD and CoQ. A single copy of subunit ATPTT2 functions as a membrane anchor for the dimeric inhibitor IF1. Type III specific linker proteins stably tie the ATP synthase monomers in parallel to each other. The intricate dimer architecture is scaffolded by an extended subunit-a that provides a template for both intra- and inter-dimer interactions. The latter results in the formation of tetramer assemblies, the membrane part of which we determined to 3.1 Å resolution. The structure of the type III ATP synthase tetramer and its associated lipids suggests that it is the intact unit propagating the membrane curvature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rasmus Kock Flygaard
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 17165, Solna, Sweden
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, 17177, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Alexander Mühleip
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 17165, Solna, Sweden
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, 17177, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Victor Tobiasson
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 17165, Solna, Sweden
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, 17177, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Alexey Amunts
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 17165, Solna, Sweden.
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, 17177, Stockholm, Sweden.
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17
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Cabaj MK, Dominiak PM. Frequency and hydrogen bonding of nucleobase homopairs in small molecule crystals. Nucleic Acids Res 2020; 48:8302-8319. [PMID: 32725210 PMCID: PMC7470937 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaa629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2020] [Revised: 07/10/2020] [Accepted: 07/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We used the high resolution and accuracy of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) to provide detailed information regarding base pairing interactions of selected nucleobases. We searched for base pairs in which nucleobases interact with each other through two or more hydrogen bonds and form more or less planar structures. The investigated compounds were either free forms or derivatives of adenine, guanine, hypoxanthine, thymine, uracil and cytosine. We divided our findings into categories including types of pairs, protonation patterns and whether they are formed by free bases or substituted ones. We found base pair types that are exclusive to small molecule crystal structures, some that can be found only in RNA containing crystal structures and many that are native to both environments. With a few exceptions, nucleobase protonation generally followed a standard pattern governed by pKa values. The lengths of hydrogen bonds did not depend on whether the nucleobases forming a base pair were charged or not. The reasons why particular nucleobases formed base pairs in a certain way varied significantly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Małgorzata Katarzyna Cabaj
- Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, ul. Żwirki i Wigury 101, 02-089 Warszawa, Poland
| | - Paulina Maria Dominiak
- Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, ul. Żwirki i Wigury 101, 02-089 Warszawa, Poland
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18
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Mei Z, Treado JD, Grigas AT, Levine ZA, Regan L, O'Hern CS. Analyses of protein cores reveal fundamental differences between solution and crystal structures. Proteins 2020; 88:1154-1161. [PMID: 32105366 PMCID: PMC7415476 DOI: 10.1002/prot.25884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2019] [Revised: 02/05/2020] [Accepted: 02/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
There have been several studies suggesting that protein structures solved by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography show significant differences. To understand the origin of these differences, we assembled a database of high-quality protein structures solved by both methods. We also find significant differences between NMR and crystal structures-in the root-mean-square deviations of the C α atomic positions, identities of core amino acids, backbone, and side-chain dihedral angles, and packing fraction of core residues. In contrast to prior studies, we identify the physical basis for these differences by modeling protein cores as jammed packings of amino acid-shaped particles. We find that we can tune the jammed packing fraction by varying the degree of thermalization used to generate the packings. For an athermal protocol, we find that the average jammed packing fraction is identical to that observed in the cores of protein structures solved by X-ray crystallography. In contrast, highly thermalized packing-generation protocols yield jammed packing fractions that are even higher than those observed in NMR structures. These results indicate that thermalized systems can pack more densely than athermal systems, which suggests a physical basis for the structural differences between protein structures solved by NMR and X-ray crystallography.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhe Mei
- Integrated Graduate Program in Physical & Engineering Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- Department of Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - John D Treado
- Integrated Graduate Program in Physical & Engineering Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Alex T Grigas
- Integrated Graduate Program in Physical & Engineering Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- Graduate Program in Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Zachary A Levine
- Department of Pathology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Lynne Regan
- Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Corey S O'Hern
- Integrated Graduate Program in Physical & Engineering Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
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19
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Filipovic J, Vavra O, Plhak J, Bednar D, Marques SM, Brezovsky J, Matyska L, Damborsky J. CaverDock: A Novel Method for the Fast Analysis of Ligand Transport. IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform 2020; 17:1625-1638. [PMID: 30932844 DOI: 10.1109/tcbb.2019.2907492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Here we present a novel method for the analysis of transport processes in proteins and its implementation called CaverDock. Our method is based on a modified molecular docking algorithm. It iteratively places the ligand along the access tunnel in such a way that the ligand movement is contiguous and the energy is minimized. The result of CaverDock calculation is a ligand trajectory and an energy profile of transport process. CaverDock uses the modified docking program Autodock Vina for molecular docking and implements a parallel heuristic algorithm for searching the space of possible trajectories. Our method lies in between the geometrical approaches and molecular dynamics simulations. Contrary to the geometrical methods, it provides an evaluation of chemical forces. However, it is far less computationally demanding and easier to set up compared to molecular dynamics simulations. CaverDock will find a broad use in the fields of computational enzymology, drug design, and protein engineering. The software is available free of charge to the academic users at https://loschmidt.chemi.muni.cz/caverdock/.
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20
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Carpentier M, Chomilier J. Analyses of displacements resulting from a point mutation in proteins. J Struct Biol 2020; 211:107543. [PMID: 32522553 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsb.2020.107543] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2020] [Revised: 04/28/2020] [Accepted: 05/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The effects of a single residue substitution on the protein backbone are frequently quite small and there are many other potential sources of structural variation for protein. We present here a methodology considering different sources of distortions in order to isolate the very effect of the mutation. To validate our methodology, we consider a well-studied family with many single mutants: the human lysozyme. Most of the perturbations are expected to be at the very localisation of the mutation, but in many cases the effects are propagated at long range. We show that the distances between the mutated residue and the 5% most disturbed residues exponentially decreases. One third of the affected residues are in direct contact with the mutated position; the remaining two thirds are potential allosteric effects. We confirm the reliability of the residues identified as significantly perturbed by comparing our results to experimental studies. We confirm with the present method all the previously identified perturbations. This study shows that mutations have long-range impact on protein backbone that can be detected, although the displacement of the affected atoms is small.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathilde Carpentier
- Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB), Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, EPHE, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 50, 75005 Paris, France.
| | - Jacques Chomilier
- Sorbonne Université, BiBiP IMPMC UMR 7590, CNRS, MNHN, Paris, France.
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21
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Abstract
The ability to precisely design large proteins with diverse shapes would enable applications ranging from the design of protein binders that wrap around their target to the positioning of multiple functional sites in specified orientations. We describe a protein backbone design method for generating a wide range of rigid fusions between helix-containing proteins and use it to design 75,000 structurally unique junctions between monomeric and homo-oligomeric de novo designed and ankyrin repeat proteins (RPs). Of the junction designs that were experimentally characterized, 82% have circular dichroism and solution small-angle X-ray scattering profiles consistent with the design models and are stable at 95 °C. Crystal structures of four designed junctions were in close agreement with the design models with rmsds ranging from 0.9 to 1.6 Å. Electron microscopic images of extended tetrameric structures and ∼10-nm-diameter "L" and "V" shapes generated using the junctions are close to the design models, demonstrating the control the rigid junctions provide for protein shape sculpting over multiple nanometer length scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- T J Brunette
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195;
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
| | - Matthew J Bick
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
| | - Jesse M Hansen
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
- Graduate Program in Biological Physics, Structure, and Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
| | - Cameron M Chow
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
| | - Justin M Kollman
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
| | - David Baker
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
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22
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Bücker R, Hogan-Lamarre P, Mehrabi P, Schulz EC, Bultema LA, Gevorkov Y, Brehm W, Yefanov O, Oberthür D, Kassier GH, Dwayne Miller RJ. Serial protein crystallography in an electron microscope. Nat Commun 2020; 11:996. [PMID: 32081905 PMCID: PMC7035385 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14793-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Serial X-ray crystallography at free-electron lasers allows to solve biomolecular structures from sub-micron-sized crystals. However, beam time at these facilities is scarce, and involved sample delivery techniques are required. On the other hand, rotation electron diffraction (MicroED) has shown great potential as an alternative means for protein nano-crystallography. Here, we present a method for serial electron diffraction of protein nanocrystals combining the benefits of both approaches. In a scanning transmission electron microscope, crystals randomly dispersed on a sample grid are automatically mapped, and a diffraction pattern at fixed orientation is recorded from each at a high acquisition rate. Dose fractionation ensures minimal radiation damage effects. We demonstrate the method by solving the structure of granulovirus occlusion bodies and lysozyme to resolutions of 1.55 Å and 1.80 Å, respectively. Our method promises to provide rapid structure determination for many classes of materials with minimal sample consumption, using readily available instrumentation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Bücker
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CFEL, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Pascal Hogan-Lamarre
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CFEL, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany
- Departments of Chemistry and Physics, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada
| | - Pedram Mehrabi
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CFEL, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Eike C Schulz
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CFEL, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Lindsey A Bultema
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CFEL, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Yaroslav Gevorkov
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany
- Institute of Vision Systems, Hamburg University of Technology, Harburger Schlossstrasse 20, 21079, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Brehm
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Oleksandr Yefanov
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Dominik Oberthür
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Günther H Kassier
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CFEL, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany
| | - R J Dwayne Miller
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, CFEL, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761, Hamburg, Germany.
- Departments of Chemistry and Physics, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H6, Canada.
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23
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Arroyo R, López S, Romo E, Montoya G, Hoz L, Pedraza C, Garfias Y, Arzate H. Carboxy-Terminal Cementum Protein 1-Derived Peptide 4 (cemp1-p4) Promotes Mineralization through wnt/ β-catenin Signaling in Human Oral Mucosa Stem Cells. Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21:E1307. [PMID: 32075221 PMCID: PMC7072908 DOI: 10.3390/ijms21041307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2020] [Revised: 02/11/2020] [Accepted: 02/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Human cementum protein 1 (CEMP1) is known to induce cementoblast and osteoblast differentiation and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in human periodontal ligament-derived cells in vitro and promotes bone regeneration in vivo. CEMP1's secondary structure analysis shows that it has a random-coiled structure and is considered an Intrinsic Disordered Protein (IDP). CEMP1's short peptide sequences mimic the biological capabilities of CEMP1. However, the role and mechanisms of CEMP1's C-terminal-derived synthetic peptide (CEMP1-p4) in the canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway are yet to be described. Here we report that CEMP1-p4 promotes proliferation and differentiation of Human Oral Mucosa Stem Cells (HOMSCs) by activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. CEMP1-p4 stimulation upregulated the expression of β-catenin and glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK-3B) and activated the transcription factors TCF1/7 and Lymphoid Enhancer binding Factor 1 (LEF1) at the mRNA and protein levels. We found translocation of β-catenin to the nucleus in CEMP1-p4-treated cultures. The peptide also penetrates the cell membrane and aggregates around the cell nucleus. Analysis of CEMP1-p4 secondary structure revealed that it has a random-coiled structure. Its biological activities included the induction to nucleate hydroxyapatite crystals. In CEMP1-p4-treated HOMSCs, ALP activity and calcium deposits increased. Expression of Osterix (OSX), Runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2), Integrin binding sialoproptein (IBSP) and osteocalcin (OCN) were upregulated. Altogether, these data show that CEMP1-p4 plays a direct role in the differentiation of HOMSCs to a "mineralizing-like" phenotype by activating the β-catenin signaling cascade.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rita Arroyo
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, Mexico; (R.A.); (S.L.); (E.R.); (G.M.); (L.H.); (C.P.)
| | - Sonia López
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, Mexico; (R.A.); (S.L.); (E.R.); (G.M.); (L.H.); (C.P.)
| | - Enrique Romo
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, Mexico; (R.A.); (S.L.); (E.R.); (G.M.); (L.H.); (C.P.)
| | - Gonzalo Montoya
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, Mexico; (R.A.); (S.L.); (E.R.); (G.M.); (L.H.); (C.P.)
| | - Lía Hoz
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, Mexico; (R.A.); (S.L.); (E.R.); (G.M.); (L.H.); (C.P.)
| | - Claudia Pedraza
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, Mexico; (R.A.); (S.L.); (E.R.); (G.M.); (L.H.); (C.P.)
| | - Yonathan Garfias
- Departamento de Bioquímica, Facultad de Medicina, UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, Mexico;
- Instituto de Oftalmología Conde de Valenciana, CDMX 06800, Mexico
| | - Higinio Arzate
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX 04510, Mexico; (R.A.); (S.L.); (E.R.); (G.M.); (L.H.); (C.P.)
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24
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Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations allow the conformational motion of a molecule such as a protein to be followed over time at atomic-level detail. Several choices need to be made prior to running a simulation, including the software, which molecules to include in the simulation, and the force field used to describe their behavior. Guidance on making these choices and other important aspects of running MD simulations is outlined here.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas A Collier
- Centre for Theoretical Chemistry and Physics, Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
- Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Thomas J Piggot
- Chemical, Biological and Radiological Sciences, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Wiltshire, UK
- School of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Jane R Allison
- Centre for Theoretical Chemistry and Physics, Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand.
- Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
- Biomolecular Interaction Centre, University of Canterbury, Auckland, New Zealand.
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
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25
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Abstract
Cryo-electron microscopy has become popular as the penultimate step on the road to structure determination for many proteins and macromolecular assemblies. The process of obtaining high-resolution images of a purified biomolecular complex in an electron microscope often follows a long, and in many cases exhaustive screening process in which many iterative rounds of protein purification are employed and the sample preparation procedure progressively re-evaluated in order to improve the distribution of particles visualized under the electron microscope, and thus maximize the opportunity for high-resolution structure determination. Typically, negative stain electron microscopy is employed to obtain a preliminary assessment of the sample quality, followed by cryo-EM which first requires the identification of optimal vitrification conditions. The original methods for frozen-hydrated specimen preparation developed over 40 years ago still enjoy widespread use today, although recent developments have set the scene for a future where more systematic and high-throughput approaches to the preparation of vitrified biomolecular complexes may be routinely employed. Here we summarize current approaches and ongoing innovations for the preparation of frozen-hydrated single particle specimens for cryo-EM, highlighting some of the commonly encountered problems and approaches that may help overcome these.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lou Brillault
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Michael J Landsberg
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia.
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26
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Alekseenko A, Kotelnikov S, Ignatov M, Egbert M, Kholodov Y, Vajda S, Kozakov D. ClusPro LigTBM: Automated Template-based Small Molecule Docking. J Mol Biol 2019; 432:3404-3410. [PMID: 31863748 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2019.12.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2019] [Revised: 12/03/2019] [Accepted: 12/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The template-based approach has been essential for achieving high-quality models in the recent rounds of blind protein-protein docking competition CAPRI (Critical Assessment of Predicted Interactions). However, few such automated methods exist for protein-small molecule docking. In this paper, we present an algorithm for template-based docking of small molecules. It searches for known complexes with ligands that have partial coverage of the target ligand, performs conformational sampling and template-guided energy refinement to produce a variety of possible poses, and then scores the refined poses. The algorithm is available as the automated ClusPro LigTBM server. It allows the user to specify the target protein as a PDB file and the ligand as a SMILES string. The server then searches for templates and uses them for docking, presenting the user with top-scoring poses and their confidence scores. The method is tested on the Astex Diverse benchmark, as well as on the targets from the last round of the D3R (Drug Design Data Resource) Grand Challenge. The server is publicly available as part of the ClusPro docking server suite at https://ligtbm.cluspro.org/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrey Alekseenko
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Stony Brook University, 11794 Stony Brook, NY, USA; Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, 11794 Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Sergei Kotelnikov
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Stony Brook University, 11794 Stony Brook, NY, USA; Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, 11794 Stony Brook, NY, USA; Innopolis University, 420500, Innopolis, Russia
| | - Mikhail Ignatov
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Stony Brook University, 11794 Stony Brook, NY, USA; Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, 11794 Stony Brook, NY, USA; Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences, Stony Brook University, 11794, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Megan Egbert
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, 02215, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Sandor Vajda
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, 02215, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Chemistry, Boston University, 02215, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Dima Kozakov
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Stony Brook University, 11794 Stony Brook, NY, USA; Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, 11794 Stony Brook, NY, USA; Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences, Stony Brook University, 11794, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
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27
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Wang T, Xu J, Fan X, Yan X, Yao D, Li R, Liu S, Li X, Liu J. Giant "Breathing" Proteinosomes with Jellyfish-like Property. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2019; 11:47619-47624. [PMID: 31747244 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b18160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The design and construction of "breathing" self-assemblies has been a rather popular topic due to their potential in materials science and nanotechnology. Inspired by the "breathing" behavior of natural jellyfish, herein, we presented the construction of a giant "breathing" proteinosome through an interfacial self-assembly of proteins and surfactants at the oil/water interface of emulsions: The proteinosome displays "breathing" behavior and can swell and shrink for multiple cycles by protein folding and unfolding through the alternate addition and removal of denaturant; more importantly, when green fluorescent proteins were selected as alternative protein building blocks, the fluorescence of proteinosome can be reversibly switched on/off just like the behavior of jellyfish. Moreover, accompanied by reversible swelling and shrinking and on/off fluorescence, the expanded and shrunk membrane pore can be tuned for distinguishing quantum dots of different sizes. The folding-responsive breathing behavior of intelligent proteinosomes provides a platform for functional biomaterials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tingting Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
| | - Jiayun Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
| | - Xiaotong Fan
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
| | - Xu Yan
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
| | - Dong Yao
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
| | - Ruyu Li
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
| | - Shengda Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
| | - Xiumei Li
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
| | - Junqiu Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry , Jilin University , 2699 Qianjin Street , Changchun 130012 , China
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28
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Lensink MF, Brysbaert G, Nadzirin N, Velankar S, Chaleil RAG, Gerguri T, Bates PA, Laine E, Carbone A, Grudinin S, Kong R, Liu RR, Xu XM, Shi H, Chang S, Eisenstein M, Karczynska A, Czaplewski C, Lubecka E, Lipska A, Krupa P, Mozolewska M, Golon Ł, Samsonov S, Liwo A, Crivelli S, Pagès G, Karasikov M, Kadukova M, Yan Y, Huang SY, Rosell M, Rodríguez-Lumbreras LA, Romero-Durana M, Díaz-Bueno L, Fernandez-Recio J, Christoffer C, Terashi G, Shin WH, Aderinwale T, Subraman SRMV, Kihara D, Kozakov D, Vajda S, Porter K, Padhorny D, Desta I, Beglov D, Ignatov M, Kotelnikov S, Moal IH, Ritchie DW, de Beauchêne IC, Maigret B, Devignes MD, Echartea MER, Barradas-Bautista D, Cao Z, Cavallo L, Oliva R, Cao Y, Shen Y, Baek M, Park T, Woo H, Seok C, Braitbard M, Bitton L, Scheidman-Duhovny D, Dapkūnas J, Olechnovič K, Venclovas Č, Kundrotas PJ, Belkin S, Chakravarty D, Badal VD, Vakser IA, Vreven T, Vangaveti S, Borrman T, Weng Z, Guest JD, Gowthaman R, Pierce BG, Xu X, Duan R, Qiu L, Hou J, Merideth BR, Ma Z, Cheng J, Zou X, Koukos PI, Roel-Touris J, Ambrosetti F, Geng C, Schaarschmidt J, Trellet ME, Melquiond ASJ, Xue L, Jiménez-García B, van Noort CW, Honorato RV, Bonvin AMJJ, Wodak SJ. Blind prediction of homo- and hetero-protein complexes: The CASP13-CAPRI experiment. Proteins 2019; 87:1200-1221. [PMID: 31612567 PMCID: PMC7274794 DOI: 10.1002/prot.25838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2019] [Revised: 09/26/2019] [Accepted: 09/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
We present the results for CAPRI Round 46, the third joint CASP-CAPRI protein assembly prediction challenge. The Round comprised a total of 20 targets including 14 homo-oligomers and 6 heterocomplexes. Eight of the homo-oligomer targets and one heterodimer comprised proteins that could be readily modeled using templates from the Protein Data Bank, often available for the full assembly. The remaining 11 targets comprised 5 homodimers, 3 heterodimers, and two higher-order assemblies. These were more difficult to model, as their prediction mainly involved "ab-initio" docking of subunit models derived from distantly related templates. A total of ~30 CAPRI groups, including 9 automatic servers, submitted on average ~2000 models per target. About 17 groups participated in the CAPRI scoring rounds, offered for most targets, submitting ~170 models per target. The prediction performance, measured by the fraction of models of acceptable quality or higher submitted across all predictors groups, was very good to excellent for the nine easy targets. Poorer performance was achieved by predictors for the 11 difficult targets, with medium and high quality models submitted for only 3 of these targets. A similar performance "gap" was displayed by scorer groups, highlighting yet again the unmet challenge of modeling the conformational changes of the protein components that occur upon binding or that must be accounted for in template-based modeling. Our analysis also indicates that residues in binding interfaces were less well predicted in this set of targets than in previous Rounds, providing useful insights for directions of future improvements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc F. Lensink
- University of Lille, CNRS UMR8576 UGSF, Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, Lille, France
| | - Guillaume Brysbaert
- University of Lille, CNRS UMR8576 UGSF, Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, Lille, France
| | - Nurul Nadzirin
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
| | - Sameer Velankar
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
| | | | - Tereza Gerguri
- Biomolecular Modelling Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Paul A. Bates
- Biomolecular Modelling Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Elodie Laine
- CNRS, IBPS, Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative (LCQB), Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Alessandra Carbone
- CNRS, IBPS, Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative (LCQB), Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
- Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Paris, France
| | - Sergei Grudinin
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Inria, Grenoble INP, LJK, Grenoble, France
| | - Ren Kong
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, China
| | - Ran-Ran Liu
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, China
| | - Xi-Ming Xu
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, China
| | - Hang Shi
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, China
| | - Shan Chang
- Institute of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, China
| | - Miriam Eisenstein
- Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | | | | | - Emilia Lubecka
- Institute of Informatics, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
| | | | - Paweł Krupa
- Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics, Warsaw, Poland
| | | | - Łukasz Golon
- Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
| | | | - Adam Liwo
- Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
- School of Computational Sciences, Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul, South Korea
| | | | - Guillaume Pagès
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Inria, Grenoble INP, LJK, Grenoble, France
| | | | - Maria Kadukova
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Inria, Grenoble INP, LJK, Grenoble, France
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudniy, Russia
| | - Yumeng Yan
- School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Sheng-You Huang
- School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
| | - Mireia Rosell
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona, Spain
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (ICVV-CSIC), Logroño, Spain
| | - Luis A. Rodríguez-Lumbreras
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona, Spain
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (ICVV-CSIC), Logroño, Spain
| | | | | | - Juan Fernandez-Recio
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona, Spain
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (ICVV-CSIC), Logroño, Spain
- Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Genki Terashi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Woong-Hee Shin
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Tunde Aderinwale
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | | | - Daisuke Kihara
- Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Dima Kozakov
- Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
| | - Sandor Vajda
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
- Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Kathryn Porter
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Dzmitry Padhorny
- Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
| | - Israel Desta
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Dmitri Beglov
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Mikhail Ignatov
- Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
| | - Sergey Kotelnikov
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudniy, Russia
- Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
| | - Iain H. Moal
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Didier Barradas-Bautista
- Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Zhen Cao
- Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Luigi Cavallo
- Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Romina Oliva
- Department of Sciences and Technologies, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Napoli, Italy
| | - Yue Cao
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
| | - Yang Shen
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
| | - Minkyung Baek
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Taeyong Park
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyeonuk Woo
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Chaok Seok
- Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Merav Braitbard
- Department of Biological Chemistry, Institute of Live Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Lirane Bitton
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Dina Scheidman-Duhovny
- Department of Biological Chemistry, Institute of Live Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Justas Dapkūnas
- Institute of Biotechnology, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
| | - Kliment Olechnovič
- Institute of Biotechnology, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
| | - Česlovas Venclovas
- Institute of Biotechnology, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
| | - Petras J. Kundrotas
- Computational Biology Program and Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
| | - Saveliy Belkin
- Computational Biology Program and Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
| | - Devlina Chakravarty
- Computational Biology Program and Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
| | - Varsha D. Badal
- Computational Biology Program and Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
| | - Ilya A. Vakser
- Computational Biology Program and Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
| | - Thom Vreven
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
| | - Sweta Vangaveti
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
| | - Tyler Borrman
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
| | - Zhiping Weng
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
| | - Johnathan D. Guest
- University of Maryland Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, Rockville, Maryland
- Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
| | - Ragul Gowthaman
- University of Maryland Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, Rockville, Maryland
- Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
| | - Brian G. Pierce
- University of Maryland Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, Rockville, Maryland
- Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
| | - Xianjin Xu
- Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
| | - Rui Duan
- Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
| | - Liming Qiu
- Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
| | - Jie Hou
- Department of Computer Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
| | - Benjamin Ryan Merideth
- Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
- Informatics Institute, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
| | - Zhiwei Ma
- Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
| | - Jianlin Cheng
- Department of Computer Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
- Informatics Institute, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
| | - Xiaoqin Zou
- Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
- Informatics Institute, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
| | - Panagiotis I. Koukos
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Jorge Roel-Touris
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Francesco Ambrosetti
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Cunliang Geng
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Jörg Schaarschmidt
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Mikael E. Trellet
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Adrien S. J. Melquiond
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Li Xue
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Brian Jiménez-García
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Charlotte W. van Noort
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Rodrigo V. Honorato
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Alexandre M. J. J. Bonvin
- Computational Structural Biology Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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29
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Zheng W, Li Y, Zhang C, Pearce R, Mortuza SM, Zhang Y. Deep-learning contact-map guided protein structure prediction in CASP13. Proteins 2019; 87:1149-1164. [PMID: 31365149 PMCID: PMC6851476 DOI: 10.1002/prot.25792] [Citation(s) in RCA: 128] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Revised: 07/14/2019] [Accepted: 07/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
We report the results of two fully automated structure prediction pipelines, "Zhang-Server" and "QUARK", in CASP13. The pipelines were built upon the C-I-TASSER and C-QUARK programs, which in turn are based on I-TASSER and QUARK but with three new modules: (a) a novel multiple sequence alignment (MSA) generation protocol to construct deep sequence-profiles for contact prediction; (b) an improved meta-method, NeBcon, which combines multiple contact predictors, including ResPRE that predicts contact-maps by coupling precision-matrices with deep residual convolutional neural-networks; and (c) an optimized contact potential to guide structure assembly simulations. For 50 CASP13 FM domains that lacked homologous templates, average TM-scores of the first models produced by C-I-TASSER and C-QUARK were 28% and 56% higher than those constructed by I-TASSER and QUARK, respectively. For the first time, contact-map predictions demonstrated usefulness on TBM domains with close homologous templates, where TM-scores of C-I-TASSER models were significantly higher than those of I-TASSER models with a P-value <.05. Detailed data analyses showed that the success of C-I-TASSER and C-QUARK was mainly due to the increased accuracy of deep-learning-based contact-maps, as well as the careful balance between sequence-based contact restraints, threading templates, and generic knowledge-based potentials. Nevertheless, challenges still remain for predicting quaternary structure of multi-domain proteins, due to the difficulties in domain partitioning and domain reassembly. In addition, contact prediction in terminal regions was often unsatisfactory due to the sparsity of MSAs. Development of new contact-based domain partitioning and assembly methods and training contact models on sparse MSAs may help address these issues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Zheng
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
| | - Yang Li
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China
| | - Chengxin Zhang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
| | - Robin Pearce
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
| | - S M Mortuza
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
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30
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Kryshtafovych A, Malhotra S, Monastyrskyy B, Cragnolini T, Joseph AP, Chiu W, Topf M. Cryo-electron microscopy targets in CASP13: Overview and evaluation of results. Proteins 2019; 87:1128-1140. [PMID: 31576602 PMCID: PMC7197460 DOI: 10.1002/prot.25817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2019] [Revised: 08/30/2019] [Accepted: 09/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Structures of seven CASP13 targets were determined using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) technique with resolution between 3.0 and 4.0 Å. We provide an overview of the experimentally derived structures and describe results of the numerical evaluation of the submitted models. The evaluation is carried out by comparing coordinates of models to those of reference structures (CASP-style evaluation), as well as checking goodness-of-fit of modeled structures to the cryo-EM density maps. The performance of contributing research groups in the CASP-style evaluation is measured in terms of backbone accuracy, all-atom local geometry and similarity of inter-subunit interfaces. The results on the cryo-EM targets are compared with those on the whole set of eighty CASP13 targets. A posteriori refinement of the best models in their corresponding cryo-EM density maps resulted in structures that are very close to the reference structure, including some regions with better fit to the density.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andriy Kryshtafovych
- Genome Center, University of California, Davis, 451 Health Sciences Drive, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Sony Malhotra
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University College London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Bohdan Monastyrskyy
- Genome Center, University of California, Davis, 451 Health Sciences Drive, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Tristan Cragnolini
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University College London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Agnel-Praveen Joseph
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University College London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Wah Chiu
- Department of Bioengineering, Microbiology and Immunology and Photon Science, Stanford University, James H. Clark Center, MC5447, 318 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Maya Topf
- Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University College London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
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31
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Li Y, Zhang C, Bell EW, Yu DJ, Zhang Y. Ensembling multiple raw coevolutionary features with deep residual neural networks for contact-map prediction in CASP13. Proteins 2019; 87:1082-1091. [PMID: 31407406 PMCID: PMC6851483 DOI: 10.1002/prot.25798] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2019] [Revised: 07/20/2019] [Accepted: 08/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
We report the results of residue-residue contact prediction of a new pipeline built purely on the learning of coevolutionary features in the CASP13 experiment. For a query sequence, the pipeline starts with the collection of multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) from multiple genome and metagenome sequence databases using two complementary Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based searching tools. Three profile matrices, built on covariance, precision, and pseudolikelihood maximization respectively, are then created from the MSAs, which are used as the input features of a deep residual convolutional neural network architecture for contact-map training and prediction. Two ensembling strategies have been proposed to integrate the matrix features through end-to-end training and stacking, resulting in two complementary programs called TripletRes and ResTriplet, respectively. For the 31 free-modeling domains that do not have homologous templates in the PDB, TripletRes and ResTriplet generated comparable results with an average accuracy of 0.640 and 0.646, respectively, for the top L/5 long-range predictions, where 71% and 74% of the cases have an accuracy above 0.5. Detailed data analyses showed that the strength of the pipeline is due to the sensitive MSA construction and the advanced strategies for coevolutionary feature ensembling. Domain splitting was also found to help enhance the contact prediction performance. Nevertheless, contact models for tail regions, which often involve a high number of alignment gaps, and for targets with few homologous sequences are still suboptimal. Development of new approaches where the model is specifically trained on these regions and targets might help address these problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Li
- School of computer science and engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Xiaolingwei 200, Nanjing, China, 210094
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
| | - Chengxin Zhang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
| | - Eric W. Bell
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
| | - Dong-Jun Yu
- School of computer science and engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Xiaolingwei 200, Nanjing, China, 210094
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
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32
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Bauer JA, Pavlović J, Bauerová-Hlinková V. Normal Mode Analysis as a Routine Part of a Structural Investigation. Molecules 2019; 24:molecules24183293. [PMID: 31510014 PMCID: PMC6767145 DOI: 10.3390/molecules24183293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2019] [Revised: 08/30/2019] [Accepted: 08/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Normal mode analysis (NMA) is a technique that can be used to describe the flexible states accessible to a protein about an equilibrium position. These states have been shown repeatedly to have functional significance. NMA is probably the least computationally expensive method for studying the dynamics of macromolecules, and advances in computer technology and algorithms for calculating normal modes over the last 20 years have made it nearly trivial for all but the largest systems. Despite this, it is still uncommon for NMA to be used as a component of the analysis of a structural study. In this review, we will describe NMA, outline its advantages and limitations, explain what can and cannot be learned from it, and address some criticisms and concerns that have been voiced about it. We will then review the most commonly used techniques for reducing the computational cost of this method and identify the web services making use of these methods. We will illustrate several of their possible uses with recent examples from the literature. We conclude by recommending that NMA become one of the standard tools employed in any structural study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob A Bauer
- Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 21, 845 51 Bratislava, Slovakia.
| | - Jelena Pavlović
- Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 21, 845 51 Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Vladena Bauerová-Hlinková
- Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 21, 845 51 Bratislava, Slovakia
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33
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Abstract
Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) models are critical in various areas of drug discovery, for example in lead optimisation and virtual screening. Recently, the need for models that are not only predictive but also interpretable has been highlighted. In this paper, a new methodology is proposed to build interpretable QSAR models by combining elements of network analysis and piecewise linear regression. The algorithm presented, modSAR, splits data using a two-step procedure. First, compounds associated with a common target are represented as a network in terms of their structural similarity, revealing modules of similar chemical properties. Second, each module is subdivided into subsets (regions), each of which is modelled by an independent linear equation. Comparative analysis of QSAR models across five data sets of protein inhibitors obtained from ChEMBL is reported and it is shown that modSAR offers similar predictive accuracy to popular algorithms, such as Random Forest and Support Vector Machine. Moreover, we show that models built by modSAR are interpretatable, capable of evaluating the applicability domain of the compounds and serve well tasks such as virtual screening and the development of new drug leads.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Cardoso-Silva
- Department of Informatics, Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, King's College London, Bush House, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG, UK
| | - Lazaros G Papageorgiou
- Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, Roberts Building, Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7JE, UK
| | - Sophia Tsoka
- Department of Informatics, Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, King's College London, Bush House, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG, UK.
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34
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Adamus K, Le SN, Elmlund H, Boudes M, Elmlund D. AgarFix: Simple and accessible stabilization of challenging single-particle cryo-EM specimens through crosslinking in a matrix of agar. J Struct Biol 2019; 207:327-331. [PMID: 31323306 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsb.2019.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2019] [Revised: 06/14/2019] [Accepted: 07/07/2019] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) allows structure determination of macromolecular assemblies that have resisted other structural biology approaches because of their size and heterogeneity. These challenging multi-protein targets are typically susceptible to dissociation and/or denaturation upon cryo-EM grid preparation, and often require crosslinking prior to freezing. Several approaches for gentle on-column or in-tube crosslinking have been developed. On-column crosslinking is not widely applicable because of the poor separation properties of gel filtration techniques. In-tube crosslinking frequently causes sample aggregation and/or precipitation. Gradient-based crosslinking through the GraFix method is more robust, but very time-consuming and necessitates specialised expensive equipment. Furthermore, removal of the glycerol typically involves significant sample loss and may cause destabilization detrimental to the sample quality. Here, we introduce an alternative procedure: AgarFix (Agarose Fixation). The sample is embedded in an agarose matrix that keeps the molecules separated, thus preventing formation of aggregates upon cross-inking. Gentle crosslinking is accomplished by diffusion of the cross-linker into the agarose drop. The sample is recovered by diffusion or electroelution and can readily be used for cryo-EM specimen preparation. AgarFix requires minimal equipment and basic lab experience, making it widely accessible to the cryo-EM community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Klaudia Adamus
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Sarah N Le
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Hans Elmlund
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Marion Boudes
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
| | - Dominika Elmlund
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
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35
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Abstract
Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) enables structure determination of macromolecular objects and their assemblies. Although the techniques have been developing for nearly four decades, they have gained widespread attention in recent years due to technical advances on numerous fronts, enabling traditional microscopists to break into the world of molecular structural biology. Many samples can now be routinely analyzed at near-atomic resolution using standard imaging and image analysis techniques. However, numerous challenges to conventional workflows remain, and continued technical advances open entirely novel opportunities for discovery and exploration. Here, I will review some of the main methods surrounding cryo-EM with an emphasis specifically on single-particle analysis, and I will highlight challenges, open questions, and opportunities for methodology development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dmitry Lyumkis
- From the Laboratory of Genetics and Helmsley Center for Genomic Medicine, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037
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36
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Sorzano COS, Jiménez A, Mota J, Vilas JL, Maluenda D, Martínez M, Ramírez-Aportela E, Majtner T, Segura J, Sánchez-García R, Rancel Y, del Caño L, Conesa P, Melero R, Jonic S, Vargas J, Cazals F, Freyberg Z, Krieger J, Bahar I, Marabini R, Carazo JM. Survey of the analysis of continuous conformational variability of biological macromolecules by electron microscopy. Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun 2019; 75:19-32. [PMID: 30605122 PMCID: PMC6317454 DOI: 10.1107/s2053230x18015108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2018] [Accepted: 10/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Single-particle analysis by electron microscopy is a well established technique for analyzing the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules. Besides its ability to produce high-resolution structures, it also provides insights into the dynamic behavior of the structures by elucidating their conformational variability. Here, the different image-processing methods currently available to study continuous conformational changes are reviewed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - A. Jiménez
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - J. Mota
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - J. L. Vilas
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - D. Maluenda
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - M. Martínez
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | | | - T. Majtner
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - J. Segura
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | | | - Y. Rancel
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - L. del Caño
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - P. Conesa
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - R. Melero
- National Center of Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain
| | - S. Jonic
- Sorbonne Université, UMR CNRS 7590, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, IRD, Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, IMPMC, Paris, France
| | | | - F. Cazals
- Inria Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée, France
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37
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Abstract
Nature has evolved an optimal synthetic factory in the form of translational and posttranslational processes by which millions of proteins with defined primary sequences and 3D structures can be built. Nature's toolkit gives rise to protein building blocks, which dictates their spatial arrangement to form functional protein nanostructures that serve a myriad of functions in cells, ranging from biocatalysis, formation of structural networks, and regulation of biochemical processes, to sensing. With the advent of chemical tools for site-selective protein modifications and recombinant engineering, there is a rapid development to develop and apply synthetic methods for creating structurally defined, functional protein nanostructures for a broad range of applications in the fields of catalysis, materials and biomedical sciences. In this review, design principles and structural features for achieving and characterizing functional protein nanostructures by synthetic approaches are summarized. The synthetic customization of protein building blocks, the design and introduction of recognition units and linkers and subsequent assembly into structurally defined protein architectures are discussed herein. Key examples of these supramolecular protein nanostructures, their unique functions and resultant impact for biomedical applications are highlighted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seah Ling Kuan
- Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research
,
Ackermannweg 10
, 55128 Mainz
, Germany
.
;
- Institute of Inorganic Chemistry I – Ulm University
,
Albert-Einstein-Allee 11
, 89081 Ulm
, Germany
| | - Fernando R. G. Bergamini
- Institute of Chemistry
, Federal University of Uberlândia – UFU
,
38400-902 Uberlândia
, MG
, Brazil
| | - Tanja Weil
- Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research
,
Ackermannweg 10
, 55128 Mainz
, Germany
.
;
- Institute of Inorganic Chemistry I – Ulm University
,
Albert-Einstein-Allee 11
, 89081 Ulm
, Germany
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38
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Li Y, Schroeder JW, Simmons LA, Biteen JS. Visualizing bacterial DNA replication and repair with molecular resolution. Curr Opin Microbiol 2018; 43:38-45. [PMID: 29197672 PMCID: PMC5984126 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2017.11.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2017] [Revised: 09/28/2017] [Accepted: 11/06/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Although DNA replication and repair in bacteria have been extensively studied for many decades, in recent years the development of single-molecule microscopy has provided a new perspective on these fundamental processes. Because single-molecule imaging super-resolves the nanometer-scale dynamics of molecules, and because single-molecule imaging is sensitive to heterogeneities within a sample, this nanoscopic microscopy technique measures the motions, localizations, and interactions of proteins in real time without averaging ensemble observations, both in vitro and in vivo. In this Review, we provide an overview of several recent single-molecule fluorescence microscopy studies on DNA replication and repair. These experiments have shown that, in both Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis the DNA replication proteins are highly dynamic. In particular, even highly processive replicative DNA polymerases exchange to and from the replication fork on the scale of a few seconds. Furthermore, single-molecule investigations of the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway have measured the complex interactions between MMR proteins, replication proteins, and DNA. Single-molecule imaging will continue to improve our understanding of fundamental processes in bacteria including DNA replication and repair.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yilai Li
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
| | - Jeremy W Schroeder
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States; University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, United States
| | - Lyle A Simmons
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
| | - Julie S Biteen
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States.
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39
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Solernou A, Hanson BS, Richardson RA, Welch R, Read DJ, Harlen OG, Harris SA. Fluctuating Finite Element Analysis (FFEA): A continuum mechanics software tool for mesoscale simulation of biomolecules. PLoS Comput Biol 2018; 14:e1005897. [PMID: 29570700 PMCID: PMC5891030 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2017] [Revised: 04/09/2018] [Accepted: 11/27/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Fluctuating Finite Element Analysis (FFEA) is a software package designed to perform continuum mechanics simulations of proteins and other globular macromolecules. It combines conventional finite element methods with stochastic thermal noise, and is appropriate for simulations of large proteins and protein complexes at the mesoscale (length-scales in the range of 5 nm to 1 μm), where there is currently a paucity of modelling tools. It requires 3D volumetric information as input, which can be low resolution structural information such as cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) maps or much higher resolution atomistic co-ordinates from which volumetric information can be extracted. In this article we introduce our open source software package for performing FFEA simulations which we have released under a GPLv3 license. The software package includes a C ++ implementation of FFEA, together with tools to assist the user to set up the system from Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB) or Protein Data Bank (PDB) data files. We also provide a PyMOL plugin to perform basic visualisation and additional Python tools for the analysis of FFEA simulation trajectories. This manuscript provides a basic background to the FFEA method, describing the implementation of the core mechanical model and how intermolecular interactions and the solvent environment are included within this framework. We provide prospective FFEA users with a practical overview of how to set up an FFEA simulation with reference to our publicly available online tutorials and manuals that accompany this first release of the package.
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Affiliation(s)
- Albert Solernou
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Benjamin S. Hanson
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | | | - Robert Welch
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel J. Read
- School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Oliver G. Harlen
- School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Sarah A. Harris
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
- Astbury Centre for Structural and Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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40
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Abstract
The success of a SAXS experiment for structural investigations depends on two precise measurements, the sample and the buffer background. Buffer matching between the sample and background can be achieved using dialysis methods but in biological SAXS of monodisperse systems, sample preparation is routinely being performed with size exclusion chromatography (SEC). SEC is the most reliable method for SAXS sample preparation as the method not only purifies the sample for SAXS but also almost guarantees ideal buffer matching. Here, I will highlight the use of SEC for SAXS sample preparation and demonstrate using example proteins that SEC purification does not always provide for ideal samples. Scrutiny of the SEC elution peak using quasi-elastic and multi-angle light scattering techniques can reveal hidden features (heterogeneity) of the sample that should be considered during SAXS data analysis. In some cases, sample heterogeneity can be controlled using a small molecule additive and I outline a simple additive screening method for sample preparation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert P Rambo
- Diamond Light Source Ltd., Harwell Science & Innovation Campus, Didcot, OX11 0DE, UK.
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41
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Yao Y, Gui R, Liu Q, Yi M, Deng H. Diverse effects of distance cutoff and residue interval on the performance of distance-dependent atom-pair potential in protein structure prediction. BMC Bioinformatics 2017; 18:542. [PMID: 29221443 PMCID: PMC5723101 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-017-1983-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2017] [Accepted: 12/04/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND As one of the most successful knowledge-based energy functions, the distance-dependent atom-pair potential is widely used in all aspects of protein structure prediction, including conformational search, model refinement, and model assessment. During the last two decades, great efforts have been made to improve the reference state of the potential, while other factors that also strongly affect the performance of the potential have been relatively less investigated. RESULTS Based on different distance cutoffs (from 5 to 22 Å) and residue intervals (from 0 to 15) as well as six different reference states, we constructed a series of distance-dependent atom-pair potentials and tested them on several groups of structural decoy sets collected from diverse sources. A comprehensive investigation has been performed to clarify the effects of distance cutoff and residue interval on the potential's performance. Our results provide a new perspective as well as a practical guidance for optimizing distance-dependent statistical potentials. CONCLUSIONS The optimal distance cutoff and residue interval are highly related with the reference state that the potential is based on, the measurements of the potential's performance, and the decoy sets that the potential is applied to. The performance of distance-dependent statistical potential can be significantly improved when the best statistical parameters for the specific application environment are adopted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuangen Yao
- Department of Physics, College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070 China
| | - Rong Gui
- Department of Physics, College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070 China
| | - Quan Liu
- Department of Physics, College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070 China
| | - Ming Yi
- Department of Physics, College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070 China
| | - Haiyou Deng
- Department of Physics, College of Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070 China
- Institute of Applied Physics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070 China
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42
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Benning FMC, Sakiyama Y, Mazur A, Bukhari HST, Lim RYH, Maier T. High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy Visualization of the Dynamics of the Multienzyme Fatty Acid Synthase. ACS Nano 2017; 11:10852-10859. [PMID: 29023094 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b04216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Multienzymes, such as the protein metazoan fatty acid synthase (FAS), are giant and highly dynamic molecular machines for critical biosynthetic processes. The molecular architecture of FAS was elucidated by static high-resolution crystallographic analysis, while electron microscopy revealed large-scale conformational variability in FAS with some correlation to functional states in catalysis. However, little is known about time scales of conformational dynamics, the trajectory of motions in individual FAS molecules, and the extent of coupling between catalysis and structural changes. Here, we present an experimental single-molecule approach to film immobilized or selectively tethered FAS in solution at different viewing angles and high spatiotemporal resolution using high-speed atomic force microscopy. Mobility of individual regions of the multienzyme is recognized in video sequences, and correlation of shape features implies a convergence of temporal resolution and velocity of FAS dynamics. Conformational variety can be identified and grouped by reference-free 2D class averaging, enabling the tracking of conformational transitions in movies. The approach presented here is suited for comprehensive studies of the dynamics of FAS and other multienzymes in aqueous solution at the single-molecule level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Friederike M C Benning
- Biozentrum, ‡Swiss Nanoscience Institute, and §Research IT, Biozentrum, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Yusuke Sakiyama
- Biozentrum, ‡Swiss Nanoscience Institute, and §Research IT, Biozentrum, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Adam Mazur
- Biozentrum, ‡Swiss Nanoscience Institute, and §Research IT, Biozentrum, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Habib S T Bukhari
- Biozentrum, ‡Swiss Nanoscience Institute, and §Research IT, Biozentrum, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Roderick Y H Lim
- Biozentrum, ‡Swiss Nanoscience Institute, and §Research IT, Biozentrum, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Timm Maier
- Biozentrum, ‡Swiss Nanoscience Institute, and §Research IT, Biozentrum, University of Basel , Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
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43
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Abstract
Accurate classification on protein structural is playing an important role in Bioinformatics. An increase in evidence demonstrates that a variety of classification methods have been employed in such a field. In this research, the features of amino acids composition, secondary structure's feature, and correlation coefficient of amino acid dimers and amino acid triplets have been used. Flexible neutral tree (FNT), a particular tree structure neutral network, has been employed as the classification model in the protein structures' classification framework. Considering different feature groups owing diverse roles in the model, impact factors of different groups have been put forward in this research. In order to evaluate different impact factors, Impact Factors Scaling (IFS) algorithm, which aim at reducing redundant information of the selected features in some degree, have been put forward. To examine the performance of such framework, the 640, 1189, and ASTRAL datasets are employed as the low-homology protein structure benchmark datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed method is better than the other methods in the low-homology protein tertiary structures.
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44
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Löffler P, Schmitz S, Hupfeld E, Sterner R, Merkl R. Rosetta:MSF: a modular framework for multi-state computational protein design. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005600. [PMID: 28604768 PMCID: PMC5484525 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005600] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2017] [Revised: 06/26/2017] [Accepted: 05/27/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Computational protein design (CPD) is a powerful technique to engineer existing proteins or to design novel ones that display desired properties. Rosetta is a software suite including algorithms for computational modeling and analysis of protein structures and offers many elaborate protocols created to solve highly specific tasks of protein engineering. Most of Rosetta’s protocols optimize sequences based on a single conformation (i. e. design state). However, challenging CPD objectives like multi-specificity design or the concurrent consideration of positive and negative design goals demand the simultaneous assessment of multiple states. This is why we have developed the multi-state framework MSF that facilitates the implementation of Rosetta’s single-state protocols in a multi-state environment and made available two frequently used protocols. Utilizing MSF, we demonstrated for one of these protocols that multi-state design yields a 15% higher performance than single-state design on a ligand-binding benchmark consisting of structural conformations. With this protocol, we designed de novo nine retro-aldolases on a conformational ensemble deduced from a (βα)8-barrel protein. All variants displayed measurable catalytic activity, testifying to a high success rate for this concept of multi-state enzyme design. Protein engineering, i. e. the targeted modification or design of proteins has tremendous potential for medical and industrial applications. One generally applicable strategy for protein engineering is rational protein design: based on detailed knowledge of structure and function, computer programs like Rosetta propose the sequence of a protein possessing the desired properties. So far, most computer protocols have used rigid structures for design, which is a simplification because a protein’s structure is more accurately specified by a conformational ensemble. We have now implemented a framework for computational protein design that allows certain design protocols of Rosetta to make use of multiple design states like structural ensembles. An in silico assessment simulating ligand-binding design showed that this new approach generates more reliably native-like sequences than a single-state approach. As a proof-of-concept, we introduced de novo retro-aldolase activity into a scaffold protein and characterized nine variants experimentally, all of which were catalytically active.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick Löffler
- Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Samuel Schmitz
- Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Enrico Hupfeld
- Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Reinhard Sterner
- Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Rainer Merkl
- Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- * E-mail:
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Rubenstein AB, Pethe MA, Khare SD. MFPred: Rapid and accurate prediction of protein-peptide recognition multispecificity using self-consistent mean field theory. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005614. [PMID: 28650961 PMCID: PMC5507473 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005614] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2017] [Revised: 07/11/2017] [Accepted: 06/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Multispecificity-the ability of a single receptor protein molecule to interact with multiple substrates-is a hallmark of molecular recognition at protein-protein and protein-peptide interfaces, including enzyme-substrate complexes. The ability to perform structure-based prediction of multispecificity would aid in the identification of novel enzyme substrates, protein interaction partners, and enable design of novel enzymes targeted towards alternative substrates. The relatively slow speed of current biophysical, structure-based methods limits their use for prediction and, especially, design of multispecificity. Here, we develop a rapid, flexible-backbone self-consistent mean field theory-based technique, MFPred, for multispecificity modeling at protein-peptide interfaces. We benchmark our method by predicting experimentally determined peptide specificity profiles for a range of receptors: protease and kinase enzymes, and protein recognition modules including SH2, SH3, MHC Class I and PDZ domains. We observe robust recapitulation of known specificities for all receptor-peptide complexes, and comparison with other methods shows that MFPred results in equivalent or better prediction accuracy with a ~10-1000-fold decrease in computational expense. We find that modeling bound peptide backbone flexibility is key to the observed accuracy of the method. We used MFPred for predicting with high accuracy the impact of receptor-side mutations on experimentally determined multispecificity of a protease enzyme. Our approach should enable the design of a wide range of altered receptor proteins with programmed multispecificities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aliza B. Rubenstein
- Computational Biology & Molecular Biophysics Program, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
- Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
| | - Manasi A. Pethe
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
- Center for Integrative Proteomics Research, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
| | - Sagar D. Khare
- Computational Biology & Molecular Biophysics Program, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
- Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
- Center for Integrative Proteomics Research, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
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Priemel T, Degtyar E, Dean MN, Harrington MJ. Rapid self-assembly of complex biomolecular architectures during mussel byssus biofabrication. Nat Commun 2017; 8:14539. [PMID: 28262668 DOI: 10.1038/ncomss14539] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2016] [Accepted: 01/06/2017] [Indexed: 05/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Protein-based biogenic materials provide important inspiration for the development of high-performance polymers. The fibrous mussel byssus, for instance, exhibits exceptional wet adhesion, abrasion resistance, toughness and self-healing capacity-properties that arise from an intricate hierarchical organization formed in minutes from a fluid secretion of over 10 different protein precursors. However, a poor understanding of this dynamic biofabrication process has hindered effective translation of byssus design principles into synthetic materials. Here, we explore mussel byssus assembly in Mytilus edulis using a synergistic combination of histological staining and confocal Raman microspectroscopy, enabling in situ tracking of specific proteins during induced thread formation from soluble precursors to solid fibres. Our findings reveal critical insights into this complex biological manufacturing process, showing that protein precursors spontaneously self-assemble into complex architectures, while maturation proceeds in subsequent regulated steps. Beyond their biological importance, these findings may guide development of advanced materials with biomedical and industrial relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Priemel
- Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Research Campus Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Elena Degtyar
- Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Research Campus Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Mason N Dean
- Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Research Campus Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Matthew J Harrington
- Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Research Campus Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany
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Stasinakis PK, Nicolaou D. Modeling of DNA and protein organization levels with Cn3D software. Biochem Mol Biol Educ 2017; 45:126-129. [PMID: 27807923 DOI: 10.1002/bmb.20998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2016] [Revised: 06/23/2016] [Accepted: 07/05/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
The molecular structure of living organisms and the complex interactions amongst its components are the basis for the diversity observed at the macroscopic level. Proteins and nucleic acids are some of the major molecular components, and play a key role in several biological functions, such as those of development and evolution. This article presents an educational, bioinformatics-based process, designed to enhance a better understanding of the structure of the above molecules. In addition, by using selected protein molecules, it attempts to clarify protein organization levels and how these are related with the structural and functional diversity, which define the biodiversity of living organisms at the macroscopic level. In the framework of this project, molecular modeling has been performed using the Cn3D software, created by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Cn3D is a user friendly application, which is easy for students to get familiar with quickly. Our suggested process may be easily enriched by a multitude of protein, nucleic acid, or other molecule structures, which are freely accessible at NCBI website. The described process has been implemented by students (n = 225) of the 5th high school grade, in two high schools in Greece. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(2):126-129, 2017.
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Mandal A, Boatz JC, Wheeler TB, van der Wel PCA. On the use of ultracentrifugal devices for routine sample preparation in biomolecular magic-angle-spinning NMR. J Biomol NMR 2017; 67:165-178. [PMID: 28229262 PMCID: PMC5445385 DOI: 10.1007/s10858-017-0089-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2016] [Accepted: 01/19/2017] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
A number of recent advances in the field of magic-angle-spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR have enabled its application to a range of biological systems of ever increasing complexity. To retain biological relevance, these samples are increasingly studied in a hydrated state. At the same time, experimental feasibility requires the sample preparation process to attain a high sample concentration within the final MAS rotor. We discuss these considerations, and how they have led to a number of different approaches to MAS NMR sample preparation. We describe our experience of how custom-made (or commercially available) ultracentrifugal devices can facilitate a simple, fast and reliable sample preparation process. A number of groups have since adopted such tools, in some cases to prepare samples for sedimentation-style MAS NMR experiments. Here we argue for a more widespread adoption of their use for routine MAS NMR sample preparation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abhishek Mandal
- Department of Structural Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA
| | - Jennifer C Boatz
- Department of Structural Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA
| | - Travis B Wheeler
- Department of Cell Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15260, USA
| | - Patrick C A van der Wel
- Department of Structural Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA.
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Monzon AM, Zea DJ, Fornasari MS, Saldaño TE, Fernandez-Alberti S, Tosatto SCE, Parisi G. Conformational diversity analysis reveals three functional mechanisms in proteins. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005398. [PMID: 28192432 PMCID: PMC5330503 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2016] [Revised: 02/28/2017] [Accepted: 02/02/2017] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Protein motions are a key feature to understand biological function. Recently, a large-scale analysis of protein conformational diversity showed a positively skewed distribution with a peak at 0.5 Å C-alpha root-mean-square-deviation (RMSD). To understand this distribution in terms of structure-function relationships, we studied a well curated and large dataset of ~5,000 proteins with experimentally determined conformational diversity. We searched for global behaviour patterns studying how structure-based features change among the available conformer population for each protein. This procedure allowed us to describe the RMSD distribution in terms of three main protein classes sharing given properties. The largest of these protein subsets (~60%), which we call "rigid" (average RMSD = 0.83 Å), has no disordered regions, shows low conformational diversity, the largest tunnels and smaller and buried cavities. The two additional subsets contain disordered regions, but with differential sequence composition and behaviour. Partially disordered proteins have on average 67% of their conformers with disordered regions, average RMSD = 1.1 Å, the highest number of hinges and the longest disordered regions. In contrast, malleable proteins have on average only 25% of disordered conformers and average RMSD = 1.3 Å, flexible cavities affected in size by the presence of disordered regions and show the highest diversity of cognate ligands. Proteins in each set are mostly non-homologous to each other, share no given fold class, nor functional similarity but do share features derived from their conformer population. These shared features could represent conformational mechanisms related with biological functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Miguel Monzon
- Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (CONICET), Bernal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Diego Javier Zea
- Bioinformatics Unit, Fundación Instituto Leloir (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - María Silvina Fornasari
- Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (CONICET), Bernal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Tadeo E. Saldaño
- Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (CONICET), Bernal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Sebastian Fernandez-Alberti
- Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (CONICET), Bernal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | | | - Gustavo Parisi
- Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (CONICET), Bernal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Abstract
A number of stains and stain combinations have been identified that, when used with the hydrophilic resin Lowicryl K11M, produce marked improvements over aqueous uranyl and lead salts (UA-Pb) in terms of low granularity, specificity, and range of components contrasted. Three test specimens, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), starfish sperm, and cultured mouse fibroblasts, were used to evaluate stain characteristics. UA-Pb showed a preference for nuclei acids, which were stained specifically by osmium ammine-B at pH 1.5. A number of stain combinations in which UA was followed or preceded by salts containing barium, manganese, tungsten, molybdenum, and vanadium provided excellent staining of protein-containing components, each stain combination being unique in terms of the degree to which specific components were discriminated. These stains were particularly effective for visualizing internal components of the nucleus where a number of fibrillar and particulate structures not seen with UA-Pb were well contrasted.
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Affiliation(s)
- R A Horowitz
- Department of Zoology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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