Computational tools for analysing structural changes in proteins in solution.

Abstract

Many important structural changes in proteins involve long-time dynamics, which are outside the timescale presently accessible by a straightforward integration of Newton's equations of motion. This problem is addressed with minimisation-based algorithms, which are applied on possible reaction pathways using atomic-detail models. For reasons of efficiency, an implicit treatment of solvent is imperative. We present the charge reparameterisation protocol, which is a method that approximates the interaction energies obtained by a numerical solution of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. Furthermore, we present a number of methods that can be used to compute possible reaction pathways associated with a particular conformational change. Two of them, the self-penalty walk and the nudged elastic band method, define an objective function, which is minimised to find optimal paths. A third method, conjugate peak refinement, is a heuristic method, which finds minimum energy paths without the use of an explicit objective function. Finally, we discuss problems and limitations with these methods and give a perspective on future research.