Author:

Keywords:

cold-shock protein, dead-end elimination, secondary structure, thermal-stability, side-chains, decay, recognition, simulations, relaxation, prediction, Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Biophysics, COLD-SHOCK PROTEIN, DEAD-END ELIMINATION, SECONDARY STRUCTURE, THERMAL-STABILITY, SIDE-CHAINS, DECAY, RECOGNITION, SIMULATIONS, RELAXATION, PREDICTION, Acrylamide, Bacillus, Kinetics, Models, Molecular, Models, Statistical, Mutation, Solvents, Spectrometry, Fluorescence, Thermodynamics, Time Factors, Tryptophan, X-Rays, 02 Physical Sciences, 03 Chemical Sciences, 06 Biological Sciences, 31 Biological sciences, 34 Chemical sciences, 51 Physical sciences

Abstract:

We investigated the native-state dynamics of the Bacillus caldolyticus cold-shock protein mutant Bc-Csp L66E, using fluorescence and appropriate molecular dynamics methods. Two fluorescence lifetimes were found, the amplitudes of which agree very well with tryptophan rotamer populations, obtained from parallel tempering calculations. Rotamer lifetimes were predicted by transition-state theory from high-temperature simulations. Transition pathways were extracted from the transition rates between individual rotameric states. The molecular dynamics also reveal the loop fluctuations in the native state.