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Lipid-protein forces predict conformational changes in a mechanosensitive channel.

Csaba DadayBert L de Groot
Published in: European biophysics journal : EBJ (2020)
The mechanosensitive TREK-2 potassium channel, a member of the K2P family, has essential physiological roles and is, therefore, a pharmaceutical target. A combination of experimental and computational studies have established that of the two known conformations, "up" and "down", membrane tension directly favors the "up" state, which displays a higher conductance. However, these studies did not reveal the exact mechanism by which the membrane affects the channel conformation. In this work, we show that changes in protein-lipid interaction patterns suffice in predicting this conformational change, and pinpoint potentially important residues involved in this phenomenon.
Keyphrases
  • molecular dynamics simulations
  • molecular dynamics
  • single molecule
  • protein protein
  • case control
  • fatty acid
  • amino acid
  • binding protein
  • genome wide
  • gene expression
  • small molecule
  • dna methylation
  • crystal structure