Biomedical subjects

Guobin Luo

Publications and source records attributed to Guobin Luo.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Dynamic distance disorder in proteins is caused by trapping.

Dynamic disorder in proteins, as demonstrated by variations in single-molecule electron transfer rates, is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The potential of mean force for the fluctuating donor-acceptor distance is calculated for the NAD(P)H:flavin oxidoreductase (Fre) complex with flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and is found to be in agreement with that estimated from electron transfer experiments. The calculated autocorrelation function of the distance fluctuations has a simple exponential behavior at low temperatures and stretched exponential behavior at higher temperatures on femtosecond to nanosecond time scales. This indicates that the calculated dynamic disorder arises from a wide range of trapping times in potential wells on the protein energy landscape and suggests a corresponding origin for the stretched exponential behavior observed experimentally on longer time scales.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Ever-fluctuating single enzyme molecules: Michaelis-Menten equation revisited.

Enzymes are biological catalysts vital to life processes and have attracted century-long investigation. The classic Michaelis-Menten mechanism provides a highly satisfactory description of catalytic activities for large ensembles of enzyme molecules. Here we tested the Michaelis-Menten equation at the single-molecule level. We monitored long time traces of enzymatic turnovers for individual beta-galactosidase molecules by detecting one fluorescent product at a time. A molecular memory phenomenon arises at high substrate concentrations, characterized by clusters of turnover events separated by periods of low activity. Such memory lasts for decades of timescales ranging from milliseconds to seconds owing to the presence of interconverting conformers with broadly distributed lifetimes. We proved that the Michaelis-Menten equation still holds even for a fluctuating single enzyme, but bears a different microscopic interpretation.

Catalysis↗

PubMed2005

Observation of a power-law memory kernel for fluctuations within a single protein molecule.

The fluctuation of the distance between a fluorescein-tyrosine pair within a single protein complex was directly monitored in real time by photoinduced electron transfer and found to be a stationary, time-reversible, and non-Markovian Gaussian process. Within the generalized Langevin equation formalism, we experimentally determine the memory kernel K(t), which is proportional to the autocorrelation function of the random fluctuating force. K(t) is a power-law decay, t(-0.51 +/- 0.07) in a broad range of time scales (10(-3)-10 s). Such a long-time memory effect could have implications for protein functions.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

PubMed2005

Fluctuating enzymes: lessons from single-molecule studies.

Recent single-molecule enzymology measurements with improved statistics have demonstrated that a single enzyme molecule exhibits large temporal fluctuations of the turnover rate constant at a broad range of time scales (from 1 ms to 100 s). The rate constant fluctuations, termed as dynamic disorder, are associated with fluctuations of the protein conformations observed on the same time scales. We discuss the unique information extractable from these experiments and the reconciliation of these observations with ensemble-averaged Michaelis-Menten equation. A theoretical model based on the generalized Langevin equation (GLE) treatment of Kramers' barrier crossing problem for chemical reactions accounts naturally for the observation of dynamic disorder and highly dispersed kinetics.

Enzymes↗

PubMed2004

Probing conformational dynamics in single donor-acceptor synthetic molecules by means of photoinduced reversible electron transfer.

We use single-molecule fluorescence lifetimes to probe dynamics of photoinduced reversible electron transfer occurring between triphenylamine (donor) and perylenediimide (acceptor) in single molecules of a polyphenylenic rigid dendrimer embedded in polystyrene. Here, reversible electron transfer in individual donor-acceptor molecules results in delayed fluorescence that is emitted with a high photon count rate. By monitoring fluorescence decay times on a photon-by-photon basis, we find fluctuations in both forward and reverse electron transfer spanning a broad time range, from milliseconds to seconds. Fluctuations are induced by conformational changes in the dendrimer structure as well by polystyrene chain reorientation. The conformational changes are related to changes in the dihedral angle of adjacent phenyl rings located in the dendritic branch near the donor transferring the charge, a torsional motion that results in millisecond fluctuations in the "through-bond" donor-acceptor electronic coupling. Polymer chain reorientation leads to changes in the local polarity experienced by the donors and to changes in the solvation of the charge-separated state. As a result, switching between different donor moieties within the same single molecule becomes possible and induces fluctuations in decay time on a time scale of seconds.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Protein conformational dynamics probed by single-molecule electron transfer.

Electron transfer is used as a probe for angstrom-scale structural changes in single protein molecules. In a flavin reductase, the fluorescence of flavin is quenched by a nearby tyrosine residue by means of photo-induced electron transfer. By probing the fluorescence lifetime of the single flavin on a photon-by-photon basis, we were able to observe the variation of flavin-tyrosine distance over time. We could then determine the potential of mean force between the flavin and the tyrosine, and a correlation analysis revealed conformational fluctuation at multiple time scales spanning from hundreds of microseconds to seconds. This phenomenon suggests the existence of multiple interconverting conformers related to the fluctuating catalytic reactivity.

Amino Acid Substitution↗

PubMed2001

The Study of Layer-by-Layer Ultrathin Films by the Dynamic Contact Angle Method.

The self-assembly film fabricated via the layer-by-layer technique was studied by the dynamic contact angle (DCA) method (wilhelmy plate method). The used polyelectrolytes are poly(diallyl-dimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA), poly(etheleneimine) (PEI), diphenylamine-4-diazonium-formaldehyde resin (DR), 2-nitro-N-methyl-4-diazonium-formaldehyde resin (NDR), and poly(sodium-p-styrenesulfonate) (PSS). For the self-assembly systems of PDDA/PSS, PEI/PSS, DR/PSS, and NDR/PSS, their individual contact angle fluctuates regularly with the fabrication of each layer, while the magnitude of different systems' contact angle depends on the participant polycation. The re-organization of components and the adjacent layer interpenetration are presented here to explain this phenomena. We also found that DR or NDR can adsorb itself via the layer-by-layer method to form multilayer film, and the hydrophobic interaction is put forward to effect this process. Moreover, the procedure of washing and drying after adsorption was studied and considered as a prerequisite for the successful fabrication, especially of the same charge carried components. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗