The stability of protein-protein interfaces can be essential for protein function. For ionotropic glutamate receptors, a family of ligand-gated ion channels vital for normal function of the central nervous system, such an interface exists between the extracellular ligand binding domains (LBDs). In the full-length protein, the LBDs are arranged as a dimer of dimers. Agonist binding to the LBDs o...

Steered molecular dynamics (SMD), a computer simulation method for studying force-induced reactions in biopolymers, has been applied to investigate the response of protein domains to stretching apart of their terminal ends. The simulations mimic atomic force microscopy and optical tweezer experiments, but proceed on much shorter time scales. The simulations on different domains for 0.6 nanoseco...

Steered molecular dynamics (SMD) permits efficient investigations of molecular processes by focusing on selected degrees of freedom. We explain how one can, in the framework of SMD, employ Jarzynski's equality (also known as the nonequilibrium work relation) to calculate potentials of mean force (PMF). We outline the theory that serves this purpose and connects nonequilibrium processes (such as...

As computational resources increase, molecular dynamics simulations of biomolecules are becoming an increasingly informative complement to experimental studies. In particular, it has now become feasible to use multiple initial molecular configurations to generate an ensemble of replicate production-run simulations that allows for more complete characterization of rare events such as ligand-rece...

Steered molecular dynamics (SMD) induces unbinding of ligands and conformational changes in biomolecules on time scales accessible to molecular dynamics simulations. Time-dependent external forces are applied to a system, and the responses of the system are analyzed. SMD has already provided important qualitative insights into biologically relevant problems, as demonstrated here for application...

A molecular dynamics simulation approximates the motion of atoms in a system of molecules over short intervals of simulated time, typically on the order of picoseconds to nanoseconds. Such simulations may run for days or weeks on a computer when used to investigate the dynamic behavior of small proteins in biological systems. By adding additional restraints, a simulation may be “steered” to obs...

Steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations were employed to investigate the extraction step of the lipid head group cleavage reaction by human synovial phospholipase A2 (PLA2) by pulling a lipid molecule from a monolayer of dilauroyl-phosphatidyl-ethanolamin lipids into the active site of PLA2 and into the aqueous phase. The results of the simulations were compared to draw inferences about th...