Different modes of barrel opening suggest a complex pathway of ligand binding in human gastrotropin

Gastrotropin, the intracellular carrier of bile salts in the small intestine, binds two ligand molecules simultaneously in its internal cavity. The molecular rearrangements required for ligand entry are not yet fully clear. To improve our understanding of the binding process we combined molecular dynamics simulations with previously published structural and dynamic NMR parameters. The resulting ensembles reveal two distinct modes of barrel opening with one corresponding to the transition between the apo and holo states, whereas the other affecting different protein regions in both ligation states. Comparison of the calculated structures with NMR-derived parameters reporting on slow conformational exchange processes suggests that the protein undergoes partial unfolding along a path related to the second mode of the identified barrel opening motion.