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Transient protein softening during the working cycle of a molecular machine
Jörg Pieper1, Alexandra Buchsteiner, Norbert A Dencher
1Max-Volmer-Laboratories for Biophysical Chemistry, Technische Universität Berlin, Strasse des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany. joerg.pieper@tu-berlin.de
Abstract:
Proper functioning of proteins usually requires a certain internal flexibility provided by stochastic structural fluctuations on the picosecond time scale. In contrast with conventional steady-state experiments, we report on a novel type of (laser-neutron) pump-probe experiment combining in situ activation of protein function with a time-dependent test of protein dynamics using quasielastic neutron scattering. A "transient protein softening" is shown to occur during the photocycle of bacteriorhodopsin as a direct proof for the functional significance of protein flexibility.
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