Global conformational changes in the three-dimensional structure of the Ca(2+) release channel/ryanodine receptor (RyR) occur upon ligand activation. A number of ligands are able to activate the RyR channel, but whether these structurally diverse ligands induce the same or different conformational changes in the channel is largely unknown. Here we constructed a fluorescence resonance energy tra...

Conformational changes in the glycoproteins of enveloped viruses are critical for membrane fusion, which enables viral entry into cells and the pathological cell-cell fusion (syncytia) associated with some viral infections. However, technological capabilities for identifying viral glycoproteins and their conformational changes on actual enveloped virus surfaces are generally scarce, challenging...

Protein conformational changes play a critical role in biological functions such as ligand-protein and protein-protein interactions. Due to the noise in structural data, determining salient conformational changes reliably and efficiently is a challenging problem. This paper presents an efficient algorithm for analyzing protein conformational changes, when the data is noisy. It applies a statist...

Sampling alternative conformations is key to understanding how proteins work and engineering them for new functions. However, accurately characterizing and modeling protein conformational ensembles remain experimentally and computationally challenging. These challenges must be met before protein conformational heterogeneity can be exploited in protein engineering and design. Here, as a stepping...

The conformational properties of 1,3-diindolylureas and thioureas were studied by a combination of heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy and quantum mechanics calculations. NOE experiments showed that the anti-anti conformer along the C7-N7α bonds was predominant in DMSO-d(6) solution in the absence of anions. Anion-induced changes in the (1)H and (15)N chemical shifts confirm the weak binding of chlo...

The calcium-induced conformational changes of the 108-amino acid residue proteins, cod III parvalbumin and oncomodulin, were compared using tryptophan as a sensitive spectroscopic probe. As native oncomodulin is devoid of tryptophan, site-specific mutagenesis was performed to create a mutant protein in which tryptophan was placed in the identical position (residue 102) as the single tryptophan ...

ATP hydrolysis by MutS homologues is required for the function of these proteins in mismatch repair. However, the function of ATP hydrolysis in the repair reaction is not very clear. We have examined the role of ATP hydrolysis in oligomerization of Thermus aquaticus (Taq) MutS protein in solution. Analytical gel filtration and cross-linking of MutS protein with disuccinimidyl suburate suggest t...

Rhodopsins are a family of light-sensitive proteins found in the cellular membranes of a wide range of living organisms. These membrane proteins share a common molecular architecture and are able to use light energy to perform a variety of different biological functions. Mapping the conformational changes required for these proteins to function is important for understanding how light energy is...

We demonstrate the detection of nanometer-scale conformational changes of single DNA oligomers through a micromechanical technique. The quantity monitored is the displacement of a micrometer-size bead tethered to a surface by the probe molecule undergoing the conformational change. This technique allows probing of conformational changes within distances beyond the range of fluorescence resonanc...

Simulating the dynamics of complex biomolecules produces trajectories comprising a large number of different configurations of the molecule. These configurations must be classified into a small number of conformational ensembles representing essential changes in the shape of the molecule. Using a conformational distance measure based on the changes in intramolecular atom distances, we show that...