Determination of the Free Energy Landscape of alpha-Synuclein Using Spin Label Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Measurements

作者：Allison Jane R; Varnai Peter; Dobson Christopher M; Vendruscolo Michele^*

来源：Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009, 131(51): 18314-18326.

DOI：10.1021/ja904716h

Natively unfolded proteins present a challenge for structure determination because they populate highly heterogeneous ensembles of conformations. A useful source of structural information about these states is provided by paramagnetic relaxation enhancement measurements by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, from which long-range interatomic distances can be estimated. Here we describe a method for using such distances as restraints in molecular dynamics simulations to obtain a mapping of the free energy landscapes of natively unfolded proteins. We demonstrate the method in the case of a-synuclein and validate the results by a comparison with electron transfer measurements. Our findings indicate that our procedure provides an accurate estimate of the relative statistical weights of the different conformations populated by a-synuclein in its natively unfolded state.

• 出版日期2009-12-30