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We describe methods for physics-based protein design and some recent applications from our work. We present the physical interpretation of a MC simulation in sequence space and show that sequences and conformations form a well-defined statistical ensemble, explored with Monte Carlo and Boltzmann sampling. The folded state energy combines molecular mechanics for solutes with continuum electrostatics for solvent. We usually assume one or a few fixed protein backbone structures and discrete side chain rotamers. Methods based on molecular dynamics, which introduce additional backbone and side chain flexibility, are under development. The redesign of a PDZ domain and an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase enzyme were successful. We describe a versatile, adaptive, Wang-Landau MC method that can be used to design for substrate affinity, catalytic rate, catalytic efficiency, or the specificity of these properties. The methods are transferable to all biomolecules, can be systematically improved, and give physical insights.

Designed enzymes are of fundamental and technological interest. Experimental directed evolution still has significant limitations, and computational approaches are a complementary route. A designed enzyme should satisfy multiple criteria: stability, substrate binding, transition state binding. Such multi-objective design is computationally challenging. Two recent studies used adaptive importance sampling Monte Carlo to redesign proteins for ligand binding. By first flattening the energy landscape of the apo protein, they obtained positive design for the bound state and negative design for the unbound. We have now extended the method to design an enzyme for specific transition state binding, i.e., for its catalytic power. We considered methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MetRS), which attaches methionine (Met) to its cognate tRNA, establishing codon identity. Previously, MetRS and other synthetases have been redesigned by experimental directed evolution to accept noncanonical amino acids as substrates, leading to genetic code expansion. Here, we have redesigned MetRS computationally to bind several ligands: the Met analog azidonorleucine, methionyl-adenylate (MetAMP), and the activated ligands that form the transition state for MetAMP production. Enzyme mutants known to have azidonorleucine activity were recovered by the design calculations, and 17 mutants predicted to bind MetAMP were characterized experimentally and all found to be active. Mutants predicted to have low activation free energies for MetAMP production were found to be active and the predicted reaction rates agreed well with the experimental values. We suggest the present method should become the paradigm for computational enzyme design., Author summary Designed enzymes are of major interest. Experimental directed evolution still has significant limitations, and computational approaches are another route. Enzymes must be stable, bind substrates, and be powerful catalysts. It is challenging to design for all these properties. A method to design substrate binding was proposed recently. It used an adaptive Monte Carlo method to explore mutations of a few amino acids near the substrate. A bias energy was gradually “learned” such that, in the absence of the ligand, the simulation visited most of the possible protein mutations with comparable probabilities. Remarkably, a simulation of the protein:ligand complex, including the bias, will then preferentially sample tight-binding sequences. We generalized the method to design binding specificity. We tested it for the methionyl-tRNA synthetase enzyme, which has been engineered in order to expand the genetic code. We redesigned the enzyme to obtain variants with low activation free energies for the catalytic step. The variants proposed by the simulations were shown experimentally to be active, and the predicted activation free energies were in reasonable agreement with the experimental values. We expect the new method will become the paradigm for computational enzyme design.

International audience; In this study, experimental far infrared measurements of L-serine, L-threonine, L-cysteine, and L-methionine are presented showing the spectra for the 1.0-13.0 pH range. In parallel, solid state DFT calculations were performed on the amino acid zwitterions in the crystalline form. We focused on the lowest frequency far infrared normal modes, which required the most precision and convergence of the calculations. Analysis of the computational results, which included the potential energy distribution of the vibrational modes, permitted a detailed and almost complete assignment of the experimental spectrum. In addition to characteristic signals of the two main acid-base couples, CO2H/CO2- and NH3+/NH2, specific side chain contributions for these amino acids, including CCO and CCS vibrational modes were analyzed. This study is in line with the growing application of FIR measurements to biomolecules. (c) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

International audience; Millions of proteins are being identified every year by high throughput genome sequencing projects. Many others can potentially be created by protein engineering and design methods. Here, we review a method for computational protein design (CPD), which starts from a known protein and its 3D structure, and seeks to modify it by mutating some or all of the amino acid sidechains. The mutations are selected to provide stability, and possibly other properties, such as ligand binding. For each set of candidate mutations, the 3D structure is modeled, with an assumption of small, localized perturbations; in particular, we assume the backbone conformation does not change significantly. As in other CPD implementations, the structure is modeled using a classical, molecular mechanics approach along with a simple, implicit description of solvent. Some of the calculations have been distributed to volunteers on the Internet, through our Proteins@Home volunteer computing project. The method and selected results are described, which show that the designed sequences share important properties of natural proteins.

International audience; DNA structural deformations and dynamics are crucial to its interactions in the cell. Theoretical simulations are essential tools to explore the structure, dynamics, and thermodynamics of biomolecules in a systematic way. Molecular mechanics force fields for DNA have benefited from constant improvements during the last decades. Several studies have evaluated and compared available force fields when the solvent is modeled by explicit molecules. On the other hand, few systematic studies have assessed the quality of duplex DNA models when implicit solvation is employed. The interest of an implicit modeling of the solvent consists in the important gain in the simulation performance and conformational sampling speed. In this study, respective influences of the force field and the implicit solvation model choice on DNA simulation quality are evaluated. To this end, extensive implicit solvent duplex DNA simulations are performed, attempting to reach both conformational and sequence diversity convergence. Structural parameters are extracted from simulations and statistically compared to available experimental and explicit solvation simulation data. Our results quantitatively expose the respective strengths and weaknesses of the different DNA force fields and implicit solvation models studied. This work can lead to the suggestion of improvements to current DNA theoretical models.

International audience; Far infrared spectra of zwitterionic, cationic, and anionic forms of aliphatic amino acids in solid state have been studied experimentally. Measurements were done on glycine, L-alanine, L-valine, L-leucine, and L-isoleucine powder samples and film samples obtained from dried solutions prepared at pH ranging from 1 to 13. Solid state density functional theory calculations were also performed, and detailed potential energy distributions were obtained from normal mode results. A good correspondence between experimental and simulated spectra was achieved and this allowed us to propose an almost complete band assignment for the far infrared spectra of zwitterionic forms. In the 700-50 cm(-1) range, three regions were identified, each corresponding to a characteristic set of normal modes. A first region between 700 and 450 cm(-1) mainly contained the carboxylate bending, rocking, and wagging modes as well as the ammonium torsional mode. The 450-250 cm(-1) region was representative of backbone and sidechain skeletal bending modes. At last, the low wavenumber zone, below 250 cm(-1), was characteristic of carboxylate and skeletal torsional modes and of lattice modes. Assignments are also proposed for glycine cationic and anionic forms, but could not be obtained for all aliphatic amino acids due to the lack of structural data. This work is intended to provide fundamental information for the understanding of peptides vibrational properties.

International audience; The conformational dynamics of the I-like and Hybrid domains from the beta3 integrin headpiece were studied by molecular dynamics simulation and normal mode analysis. Crystallographic structures of integrins show that the integrin headpiece can exist in largely different conformations manifested by a significant difference in the angle between the I-like and Hybrid domains. The relative orientation of these two domains is believed to be a crucial element of integrin function, as it may relate local structural modifications induced by ligand binding into large-scale conformational changes. To investigate the detailed mechanisms responsible for this coupling, we carried out molecular dynamics simulations of the I-like/Hybrid system and employed quasi-harmonic and normal mode analyses to characterize the large-scale motions. Our results show that the conformational transition of I-like and Hybrid domains inferred from crystallographic data is contained in the low-frequency dynamics of the system. Using targeted molecular dynamics simulations, we investigated the roles played by two structural elements of the I-like domain, the alpha7 and alpha1 helices, in the interdomain transition. From our results, we propose that these two helices function in tandem to initiate large-scale, interdomain conformational transition apparent in integrin activation and signaling.

An allylic alkylation/ring-closing metathesis domino catalytic process, wherein a palladium and a ruthenium catalyst are concomitantly present in the reaction mixture from the outset of the reaction, is developed. Evidence for Grubbs' catalysts activity in allylic alkylation is also reported.

An allylic alkylation/ring-closing metathesis domino catalytic process, wherein a palladium and a ruthenium catalyst are concomitantly present in the reaction mixture from the outset of the reaction, is developed. Evidence for Grubbs' catalysts activity in allylic alkylation is also reported.

The conformational dynamics of the Inserted domain (I-domain) from the lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) was investigated by normal mode analysis of multiple structures of the low, intermediate, and high affinity states. LFA-1 is an integrin expressed on leukocytes and is of critical importance in adhesion reactions, like antigen-specific responses, homing, and diapedesis. The main ligand binding site of LFA-1 is the I-domain, which recognizes intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAMs), members of the immunoglobulin superfamily. From experimental crystal structures, a large-scale conformational change of, among others, the α7 helix of the I-domain has been observed leading to the proposal that these structural changes are linked to the conformational regulation of LFA-1. The results from the present calculations show that structural changes of the α7 helix consistent with those observed in the crystal structures are significantly sampled by the low frequency modes. This was found to be particularly true for the low affinity state of the I-domain, indicating that low frequency motions favor the conformational transition implicated in activation. However, beyond the simple downward shift of the helix implied by the crystal structures, the calculations further show that there is a noticeable swinging-out motion of the helix. The consequences of this motion are discussed in the context of integrin activation and inhibition. Moreover, significant changes in the atomic-level dynamics and in long-range correlated motions of the I-domain were found to occur upon binding of the natural ligand ICAM. These changes were more local upon binding of an allosteric inhibitor. The present study opens the question of how changes in dynamics may contribute to the long-range transmission of signal upon ICAM binding by the LFA-1 I-domain.