Abstract
We present an overview of protein dynamics based mostly on results of neutron scattering, dielectric relaxation spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. We identify several major classes of protein motions on the time scale from faster than picoseconds to several microseconds, and discuss the coupling of these processes to solvent dynamics. Our analysis suggests that the microsecond backbone relaxation process might be the main structural relaxation of the protein that defines its glass transition temperature, while faster processes present some localized secondary relaxations. Based on the overview, we formulate a general picture of protein dynamics and discuss the challenges in this field.
Highlights
Biological macromolecules play a crucial role in all processes of life, from catalysis of biochemical reactions, to transport and to genetic codes
Combination of the results obtained with these techniques with atomistic details learned from NMR, neutrons and MD-simulations might result in a significant breakthrough in our understanding of biomolecular dynamics
We focus on equilibrium fluctuations and conformational changes in the folded state on time scales from sub-picosecond to microseconds, and discuss the influence of temperature and hydration level on protein dynamics
Summary
Sheila Khodadadi received her PhD in Polymer Science in 2009 from the University of Akron, USA. Combining dielectric spectroscopy with NMR, neutron scattering and MD simulations can be a very powerful approach to study details of molecular motions in a broad frequency and temperature range.[41,45,46,47,48,49,50]. Combination of the results obtained with these techniques with atomistic details learned from NMR, neutrons and MD-simulations might result in a significant breakthrough in our understanding of biomolecular dynamics This topic, is out of scope of the current review. In this review we aim to formulate a general atomistic picture of protein dynamics with classification of major relaxation processes that control conformational fluctuations This classification is based on analogy with dynamics of soft materials, and aims at providing a framework to describe complex dynamics of biological macromolecules. We emphasize specificity of the relaxation processes in proteins that differentiate them from the classical dynamic processes of other soft materials
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