Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 31, 2026

Optimization of Synthetic Proteins: Identification of Interpositional Dependencies Indicating Structurally and/or Functionally Linked Residues
Published on: July 14, 2015
Allostery in protein domains reflects a balance of steric and hydrophobic effects
1263 Icahn Laboratory, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. jengland@princeton.edu
Abstract:
Allosteric conformational change underlies biological function in many proteins. Allostery refers to a conformational event in which one region of a protein undergoes structural rearrangement in response to a stimulus applied to a different region of the same protein. Here, I show for a variety of proteins that a simple, phenomenological model of the dependence of protein conformation on hydrophobic burial energy allows one to compute low-energy conformational fluctuations for a given sequence by using linear programming to find optimized combinations of sequence-specific hydrophobic burial modes that satisfy steric constraints. From these fluctuations one may calculate allosteric couplings between different sites in a protein domain. Although the physical basis of protein structure is complex and multifactorial, a simplified description of conformational energy in terms of the hydrophobic effect alone is sufficient to give a mechanistic explanation for many biologically important allosteric events.
More Related Videos
06:50Computational Prediction of Amino Acid Preferences of Potentially Multispecific Peptide-Binding Domains Involved in Protein-Protein Interactions
Published on: January 26, 2024
09:49Sedimentation Equilibrium of a Small Oligomer-forming Membrane Protein: Effect of Histidine Protonation on Pentameric Stability
Published on: April 2, 2015
Related Concept Videos
Ligand Binding Sites
Protein-ligand interactions are quite specific; even though numerous potential ligands surround a cellular protein at any given time, only a particular ligand can bind to that protein. Moreover, a ligand binds only to a dedicated area on the surface of the protein, known as the...
Ligand Binding Sites
Protein-ligand interactions are quite specific; even though numerous potential ligands surround a cellular protein at any given time, only a particular ligand can bind to that protein. Moreover, a ligand binds only to a dedicated area on the surface of the protein, known as the...
Conservation of Protein Domains Over Different Proteins
A limited set of protein domains often duplicate and recombine during evolution. These domains can be organized in different combinations to form...
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally analyses the...
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally analyses the...
Cooperative Allosteric Transitions