Hydrodynamic multibead modeling: problems, pitfalls, and solutions. 2. Proteins

Hydrodynamic models of proteins have been generated by recourse to crystallographic data and applying a filling model strategy in order to predict both hydrodynamic and scattering parameters. The design of accurate protein models retaining the majority of the molecule peculiarities requires usage of many beads and consideration of many serious problems. Applying the expertise obtained with ellipsoid models and pilot tests on proteins, we succeeded in constructing precise models for several anhydrous and hydrated proteins of different shape, size, and complexity. The models constructed consist of many beads (up to about 11,000) for the protein constituents (atoms, amino acid residues, groups) and preferentially bound water molecules. While in the case of small proteins, parameter predictions are straightforward, computations for giant proteins necessitate drastic reductions of the number of initially available beads. Among several auxiliary programs, our advanced hydration programs, HYDCRYST and HYDMODEL, and modified versions of García de la Torre's program HYDRO were successfully employed. This allowed the generation of realistic protein models by imaging details of their fine structure and enabled the prediction of reliable molecular parameters including intrinsic viscosities. The appearance of the models and the agreement of molecular properties and distance distribution functions p(r) of unreduced and reduced models can be used for a meticulous inspection of the data obtained.