THERMODYNAMIC AND MECHANICAL EFFECTS OF DISULFIDE BONDS IN CXCL7 CHEMOKINE

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Singer, C. (2015). THERMODYNAMIC AND MECHANICAL EFFECTS OF DISULFIDE BONDS IN CXCL7 CHEMOKINE. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Chemokines are a family of signaling proteins mainly responsible for the chemotaxis of leukocytes, where their biological activity is modulated by their oligomerization state. Here, the dynamics and thermodynamic stability are characterized in monomer and homodimer structures of CXCL7, one of the most abundant platelet chemokines. The effects of dimerization and disulfide bond formation are investigated using computational methods that include molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and the Distance Constraint Model (DCM). A consistent picture emerges for the effect of dimerization and role of the Cys5-Cys31 and Cys7- Cys47 disulfide bonds. Surprisingly, neither disulfide bond is critical for maintaining structural stability in the monomer or dimer, although the monomer is destabilized more than the dimer upon removal of disulfide bonds. Instead, it is found that disulfide bonds influence the native state dynamics as well as modulates the relative stability between monomer and dimer. The combined analysis elucidates how CXCL7 is mechanically stable as a monomer, and how upon dimerization flexibly correlated motions are induced between the 30s and 50s loop within each monomer and across the dimer interface. Interestingly, the greatest gain in flexibility upon dimerization occurs when both disulfide bonds are present in each domain, and the homodimer is least stable relative to its two monomers. These results suggest the highly conserved disulfide bonds in chemokines facilitate a structural mechanism for distinguishing functional characteristics between monomer and dimer.

Details
Author

Singer, Christopher

Title

THERMODYNAMIC AND MECHANICAL EFFECTS OF DISULFIDE BONDS IN CXCL7 CHEMOKINE

Physical Description

1 online resource (61 pages) : PDF

Date

2015

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Chemokines are a family of signaling proteins mainly responsible for the chemotaxis of leukocytes, where their biological activity is modulated by their oligomerization state. Here, the dynamics and thermodynamic stability are characterized in monomer and homodimer structures of CXCL7, one of the most abundant platelet chemokines. The effects of dimerization and disulfide bond formation are investigated using computational methods that include molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and the Distance Constraint Model (DCM). A consistent picture emerges for the effect of dimerization and role of the Cys5-Cys31 and Cys7- Cys47 disulfide bonds. Surprisingly, neither disulfide bond is critical for maintaining structural stability in the monomer or dimer, although the monomer is destabilized more than the dimer upon removal of disulfide bonds. Instead, it is found that disulfide bonds influence the native state dynamics as well as modulates the relative stability between monomer and dimer. The combined analysis elucidates how CXCL7 is mechanically stable as a monomer, and how upon dimerization flexibly correlated motions are induced between the 30s and 50s loop within each monomer and across the dimer interface. Interestingly, the greatest gain in flexibility upon dimerization occurs when both disulfide bonds are present in each domain, and the homodimer is least stable relative to its two monomers. These results suggest the highly conserved disulfide bonds in chemokines facilitate a structural mechanism for distinguishing functional characteristics between monomer and dimer.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Physics
Bioinformatics
Biophysics

Degree

M.S.

Subject Area

Applied Physics

Advisor(s)

Jacobs, Donald

Committee Members

Nesmelova, Irina
Her, Tsing-Hua

Degree Note

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2015.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Singer_uncc_0694N_11015

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1346