Significance of Knotted Structures for Function of Proteins and Nucleic Acids
Poster Session II
35 – POS
Board 7
Balls and Sticks in Medically Important Proteins under Mechanical Stress
Wieslaw Nowak
, Lukasz Peplowski, Rafal Jakubowski, Karolina Mikulska-Ruminska, Jakub
Rydzewski.
Institute of Physics, Torun, Poland.
The human brain contains over 10**14 synapses between neurons. Hundreds of different protein
pairs govern proper development and functioning of neuronal networks. Do they contain protein
knots? Mechanical stability of cytoskeleton to large extent depends on spectrin repeats.
Individual helices are tightly coupled to create microfibers. The lack of nanomechnical stability
in both cellular environments may lead to serious disorders and health hazards. The data on
important synaptic components, such as neurexins (NRXNs – related to autism), neuroligins
(NLGNs -linking pre- and post-synaptic part of the synaptic cleft), contactins (CNTNs present in
Ranvier nodes), reelins (RELNs - regulation of neuronal migration) and keratins (parts of
epidermis) stemming from single molecule Virtual Atomic Force Microscopy computational
experiments will be presented. In this presentation we will show how our efforts in
understanding of nanomechanics of these systems led to developing steered molecular dynamics
simulation protocols that may help to interpret real AFM spectra and to see performance of such
modular proteins subject to extreme mechanical stress. Both all-atoms and coarse-grained
simulations contribute to better mechanical models of these intriguing systems.
Supported by NCN (UMO-2012/05/N/ST3/03178), NCU grant 1142-F, NCN grants No. N202
262038 and No. N519 578138. KM acknowledges SCIEX fellowship.
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