Related papers: Metal Coupled Folding of Cys2His2 Zinc-Finger
The zinc finger structure where a Zn2+ ion binds to 4 cysteine or histidine amino acids in a tetrahedral structure is very common motif of nucleic acid binding proteins. The corresponding interaction model is present in 3% of the genes of…
We study two designed and one natural zinc-finger peptide each with the Cys2His2 (CCHH) type of metal binding motif. In the approach we have developed, we describe the role of the protein and solvent outside the Zn(II)-CCHH metal-residue…
The eukaryotic Cys2His2 zinc finger proteins bind to DNA ubiquitously at highly conserved domains, responsible for gene regulation and the spatial organization of DNA. To study and understand the zinc finger DNA-protein interaction, we use…
Zinc is found saturated in the deposited Amyloid-beta (AB) peptide plaques in brains of patients subjected to Alzheimer disease (AD). Zinc binding to AB promotes aggregations, including the toxic soluble AB species. Up to now, only the…
Folding of ribozymes into well-defined tertiary structures usually requires divalent cations. How Mg$^{2+}$ ions direct the folding kinetics has been a long-standing unsolved problem because experiments cannot detect the positions and…
Water and water-mediated interactions determine thermodynamic and kinetics of protein folding, protein aggregation and self-assembly in confined spaces. To obtain insights into the role of water in the context of folding problems, we…
The determination of a 'folding core' can help to provide insight into the structure, flexibility, mobility and dynamics, and hence, ultimately, function of a protein - a central concern of structural biology. Changes in the folding core…
Exploring the protein-folding problem has been a long-standing challenge in molecular biology. Protein folding is highly dependent on folding of secondary structures as the way to pave a native folding pathway. Here, we demonstrate that a…
Binding interactions between proteins and other molecules mediate numerous cellular processes, including metabolism, signaling, and regulation of gene expression. These interactions evolve in response to changes in the protein's chemical or…
Focusing on a small set of proteins that i) fold in a concerted, all-or-none fashion and ii) do not contain knots or slipknots, we show that the Gauss linking integral, the torsion and the number of sequence-distant contacts provide…
We have combined a custom implementation of the fast multiple-time-stepping LN integrator with parallel tempering to explore folding properties of small peptides in implicit solvent on the time scale of microseconds. We applied this…
Intrinsically disordered proteins participate in many biological processes by folding upon binding with other proteins. However, coupled folding and binding processes are not well understood from an atomistic point of view. One of the main…
Zinc alloys are recognised for their excellent biocompatibility and favourable corrosion rates, making them suitable for bioabsorbable implants. However, their mechanical properties necessitate improvement to fulfil the rigorous…
Membrane fluidity, well-known to be essential for cell functions, is obviously affected by copper. However, the underlying mechanism is still far from being understood, especially on the atomic level. Here, we unexpectedly observed that a…
Folding of proteins into their correct native structure is key to their function. Simultaneously, the intricate interplay between cell movement and protein conformation highlights the complex nature of cellular processes. In this work, we…
Zinc-based batteries offer good volumetric energy densities and are compatible with environmentally friendly aqueous electrolytes. Zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) rely on a lithium-ion-like Zn$^{2+}$-shuttle, which enables higher roundtrip…
Protein folding cooperativity is defined by the nature of the finite-size thermodynamic transition exhibited upon folding: two-state transitions show a free energy barrier between the folded and unfolded ensembles, while downhill folding is…
The problem of detecting the ability of some metal oxides as photocatalysts is receiving considerable attention in the world. The studied zinc oxide is considered as one of the most utilized semiconductors, due to its direct band gap of…
Due to their favorable properties and high porosity, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) have recently received much limelight for key technologies such as energy storage, optoelectronics, sensorics, and catalysis. Despite the widespread…
We report a characterization of the high-pressure behavior of zinc-iodate, Zn(IO3)2. By the combination of x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and first-principles calculations we have found evidence of two subtle isosymmetric structural…