ISSN:
0192-8651
Keywords:
Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling
;
Biochemistry
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
Notes:
A procedure that generates random conformations of a protein chain, and then applies energy minimization to find the structure of lowest energy, is described. Single-residue conformations are represented in terms of four conformational states, α, ∊, α*, and ∊*. Each state corresponds to a rectangular region in the φ, ψ map. The conformation of an entire chain is then represented by a sequence of single-residue conformational states. The distinct “chain-states” in this representation correspond to multidimensional rectangular regions in the conformational space of the whole protein. A set of highly-probable chain-states can be predicted from the amino acid sequence using the pattern recognition procedure developed in the first two articles of this series. The importance-sampling minimization procedure of the present article is then used to explore the regions of conformational space corresponding to each of these chain-states. The importance-sampling procedure generates a number of random conformations within a particular multidimensional rectangular region, sampling most densely from the most probable, or “important,” sections of the φ, ψ map. All values of φ and ψ are allowed, but the less-probable values are sampled less often. To achieve this, the random values of φ and Φ are generated from bivariate gaussian distributions that are determined from known X-ray structures. Separate gaussian distributions are used for proline residues in the α and ∊ states, for glycine residues in the α, ∊, α*, and ∊* states, and for ordinary residues involved in 29 different tripeptide conformations. Energy minimization is then applied to the randomly-generated structures to optimize interactions and to improve packing. The final energy values are used to select the best structures. The importance-sampling minimization procedure is tested on the avian pancreatic polypeptide, using chain-states predicted from the amino acid sequence. The conformation having the lowest energy is very similar to the X-ray conformation.
Additional Material:
9 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcc.540100605
