How the stability of a folded protein depends on interfacial water properties and residue-residue interactions

Author(s)
Valentino Bianco, Neus Pages-Gelabert, Ivan Coluzza, Giancarlo Franzese
Abstract

Proteins tend to adopt a single or a reduced ensemble of configurations at natural conditions [1], but changes in temperature T and pressure P induce their unfolding. Therefore for each protein there is a stability region (SR) in the T–P thermodynamic plane outside which the biomolecule is denaturated. It is known that the extension and shape of the SR depend on i) the specific protein residue-residue interactions in the native state of the amino acids sequence and ii) the water properties at the hydration interface. Here we analyze by Monte Carlo simulations the different coarse-grained protein models in explicit water how changes in i) and ii) affect the SR. We show that the solvent properties ii) are essential to rationalize the SR shape at low T and high P and that our findings are robust with respect to parameter changes and with respect to different protein models, representative of the ordered and disordered proteins. These results can help in developing new strategies for the design of novel synthetic biopolymers.

Organisation(s)
Computational and Soft Matter Physics
External organisation(s)
Universitat de Barcelona
Journal
Journal of Molecular Liquids
Volume
245
Pages
129-139
No. of pages
11
ISSN
0167-7322
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2017.08.026
Publication date
11-2017
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103006 Chemical physics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Chemistry, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Spectroscopy, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/09c51b77-a11b-4d6d-a224-684051361d13