Dynamical view of the positions of key side chains in protein-protein recognition

When a complex is constructed from the separately determined rigid structures of a receptor and its ligand, some key side chains are usually in wrong positions. These distortions of the interface yield an apparent loss in affinity and would unfavorably affect the kinetics of association. It is generally assumed that the interacting proteins should drive the appropriate conformational changes, leading to their complementarity, but this hypothesis does not explain their fast association rates. However, nanosecond explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations of misfolded surface side chains from the independently solved structures of barstar, bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, and lysozyme show that even before any receptor-ligand interaction, key side chains frequently visit the rotamer conformations seen in the complex. We show that these simple structural motifs can reconcile most of the binding affinity required for a rapid and highly specific association process. Side chains amenable to induced fit are also identified. These results corroborate that solvent-side chain interactions play a critical role in the recognition process. Our findings are also supported by crystallographic data.