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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Dissecting Mechanoenzymatic Properties of Processive Myosins with Ultrafast Force-Clamp Spectroscopy
Published on: July 1, 2021
Dynamic distance disorder in proteins is caused by trapping
Guobin Luo1, Ioan Andricioaei, X Sunney Xie
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Protein dynamics influence electron transfer rates. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that dynamic disorder in the NAD(P)H:flavin oxidoreductase (Fre) complex arises from protein energy landscape trapping times, explaining experimental observations.
Area of Science:
- Biophysics
- Computational Biology
- Biochemistry
Background:
- Protein dynamics play a crucial role in biological processes, including electron transfer.
- Understanding how protein motion affects function is key to deciphering complex biological mechanisms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate dynamic disorder in proteins using molecular dynamics simulations.
- To calculate the potential of mean force and autocorrelation functions for donor-acceptor distance fluctuations in the NAD(P)H:flavin oxidoreductase (Fre) complex.
Main Methods:
- Molecular dynamics simulations.
- Calculation of potential of mean force for donor-acceptor distance.
- Analysis of distance fluctuation autocorrelation functions at various temperatures.
Main Results:
- The calculated potential of mean force for the NAD(P)H:flavin oxidoreductase (Fre) complex agrees with experimental estimates.
- Autocorrelation functions show simple exponential behavior at low temperatures and stretched exponential behavior at higher temperatures (femtosecond to nanosecond scales).
Conclusions:
- Dynamic disorder in proteins originates from a broad distribution of trapping times in potential wells on the protein energy landscape.
- This finding provides a molecular basis for the stretched exponential behavior observed in experimental studies of protein dynamics.
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