• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제26권12호
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• pp.2001-2006
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• 2005

Glycoproteins and glycolipids play key roles in intracellular reactions between cells and their environments at the membrane surface. For better understanding of the nature of these events, it is necessary to know threedimensional structures of those carbohydrates, involved in them. Since carbohydrates contain many hydroxyl groups which can serve both as hydrogen bond donors and acceptors, hydrogen bond is an important factor stabilizing the structure of carbohydrate. DMSO is an aprotic solvent frequently used for the study of carbohydrates because it gives detailed insight into the intramolecular hydrogen bond network. In this study, conformational properties and the hydrogen bonds in $\beta$-lactose in DMSO are investigated by NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. NOEs, temperature coefficients, deuterium isotope effect, and molecular dynamics simulations proved that there is a strong intramolecular hydrogen bond between O3 and HO2' in $\beta$-lactose and also OH3 in $\beta$-lactose may form an intermolecular hydrogen bond with DMSO.

• Macromolecular Research
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.178-188
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• 2004

We performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations at 300 K on a series of poly(benzyl ether) (PBE) dendrimers having a different core functionalities. We used the rotational isomeric state Metropolis Monte Carlo (RMMC) method to construct the initial configuration in a periodic boundary cell (PBC) before the MD simulations were undertaken. To elucidate the effects that the structural features have on the chain dimension, the overall internal structure, and the morphology, we monitored the radii of gyration, R$\sub$g/ and the conformational changes during the simulations. The PBE dendrimers in a glassy state adopted less-extended structures when compared with the conformations obtained from the RMMC calculations. We found that R$\sub$g/ of the PBE dendrimer depends on the molecular weight, M, according to the relation, R$\sub$g/∼M$\^$0.22/. The radial distributions of the dendrimers were developed identically in the PBC, irrespective of the core functionality. A gradual decrease in radial density resulted from the fact that the terminal branch ends are distributed all over the molecule, except for the core region.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.408-412
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• 2008

FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) in Arabidopsis are homologous proteins that perform opposite functions: FT is an activator of flowering, and TFL1 is a repressor. It was shown before that change of a single amino acid (His88) of TFL1 to the corresponding amino acid (Tyr) of FT is enough to convert the floral repressor to an activator. However, structural basis of the functional conversion has not been understood. In our molecular dynamics simulations on modified TFL1 proteins, a hydrogen bond present in native TFL1 between the His88 residue and a residue (Asp144) in a neighboring external loop became broken by change of His88 to Tyr. This breakage induced conformational change of the external loop whose structure was previously reported to be another key functional determinant. These findings reveal that the two important factors determining the functional specificities of the floral regulators, the key amino acid (His88) and the external loop, are correlated, and the key amino acid determines the functional specificity indirectly by affecting the conformation of the external loop.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제31권9호
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• pp.2581-2587
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• 2010

Nitration of tyrosine and tryptophan residues is common in cells under nitrative stress. However, physiological consequences of protein nitration are not well characterized on a molecular level due to limited availability of the 3D structures of nitrated proteins. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation can be an alternative tool to probe the structural perturbations induced by nitration. In this study we developed molecular mechanics parameters for 3-nitrotyrosine (NIY) and 6-nitrotryptophan (NIW) that are compatible with the AMBER-99 force field. Partial atomic charges were derived by using a multi-conformational restrained electrostatic potential (RESP) methodology that included the geometry optimized structures of both $\alpha$- and $\beta$-conformers of a capped tripeptide ACE-NIY-NME or ACE-NIW-NME. Force constants for bonds and angles were adopted from the generalized AMBER force field. Torsional force constants for the proper dihedral C-C-N-O and improper dihedral C-O-N-O of the nitro group in NIY were determined by fitting the torsional energy profiles obtained from quantum mechanical (QM) geometry optimization with those from molecular mechanical (MM) energy minimization. Force field parameters obtained for NIY were transferable to NIW so that they reproduced the QM torsional energy profiles of ACE-NIW-NME accurately. Moreover, the QM optimized structures of the tripeptides containing NIY and NIW were almost identical to the corresponding structures obtained from MM energy minimization, attesting the validity of the current parameter set. Molecular dynamics simulations of thioredoxin nitrated at the single tyrosine and tryptophan yielded well-behaved trajectories suggesting that the parameters are suitable for molecular dynamics simulations of a nitrated protein.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.848-854
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• 2012

We have studied the oligomerization of a fibril-forming segment of ${\alpha}$-Synulcein using a replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulation. The simulation was performed with trimers and tetramers of a 12 amino acid residue stretch (residues 71-82) of ${\alpha}$-Synulcein. From extensive REMD simulations, we observed the spontaneous formation of both trimer and tetramer, demonstrating the self-aggregating and fibril-forming properties of the peptides. Secondary structure profile and clustering analysis illustrated that antiparallel ${\beta}$-sheet structures are major species corresponding to the global free energy minimum. As the size of the oligomer increases from a dimer to a tetramer, conformational stability is increased. We examined the evolution of simple order parameters and their free energy profiles to identify the process of aggregation. It was found that the degree of aggregation increased as time passed. Tetramer formation was slower than trimer formation and a transition in order parameters was observed, indicating the full development of tetramer conformation which is more stable than that of the trimer. The shape of free energy surface and change of order parameter distributions indicate that the oligomer formation follows a dock-and-lock process.

• 한국자기공명학회논문지
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.102-108
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• 2016

With the rapid increase of data on protein-protein interactions, the need for delineating the 3D structures of huge protein complexes has increased. The protocols for determining nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structure can be applied to modeling complex structures coupled with sparse experimental restraints. In this report, I suggest the use of multiple rigid bodies for improving the efficiency of NMR-assisted structure modeling of huge complexes using CYANA. By preparing a region of known structure as a new type of residue that has no torsion angle, one can facilitate the search of the conformational spaces. This method has a distinct advantage over the rigidification of a region with synthetic distance restraints, particularly for the calculation of huge molecules. I have demonstrated the idea with calculations of decaubiquitins that are linked via Lys6, Lys11, Lys27, Lys29, Lys33, Lys48, or Lys63, or head to tail. Here, the ubiquitin region consisting of residues 1-70 was treated as a rigid body with a new residue. The efficiency of the calculation was further demonstrated in Lys48-linked decaubiquitin with ambiguous distance restraints. The approach can be readily extended to either protein-protein complexes or large proteins consisting of several domains.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제32권12호
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• pp.1515-1526
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• 2022

Eukaryotic chromatin is highly organized in the 3D nuclear space and dynamically regulated in response to environmental stimuli. This genomic organization is arranged in a hierarchical fashion to support various cellular functions, including transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Like other host cellular mechanisms, viral pathogens utilize and modulate host chromatin architecture and its regulatory machinery to control features of their life cycle, such as lytic versus latent status. Combined with previous research focusing on individual loci, recent global genomic studies employing conformational assays coupled with high-throughput sequencing technology have informed models for host and, in some cases, viral 3D chromosomal structure re-organization during infection and the contribution of these alterations to virus-mediated diseases. Here, we review recent discoveries and progress in host and viral chromatin structural dynamics during infection, focusing on a subset of DNA (human herpesviruses and HPV) as well as RNA (HIV, influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2) viruses. An understanding of how host and viral genomic structure affect gene expression in both contexts and ultimately viral pathogenesis can facilitate the development of novel therapeutic strategies.

• Macromolecular Research
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• 제8권5호
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• pp.224-230
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• 2000

Molecular mechanics technique has been used for finding energy-minimized conformation to understand the mechanism of yielding of glassy polymers in atomistic level. As a model polymer, amor- phous isotactic polypropylene (iPP) was generated by molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics methods. The stress-strain cone was successfully obtained by using molecular mechanics technique. The torsional angle distribution showed no significant change during extension, although the torsional angles of certain bonds in polymer backbone changed more largely than other bonds. No significant change in the van der Waals interaction is observed at yielding point, whereas the torsional angle energy starts to decrease at yield strain.

• 한국자기공명학회논문지
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.50-55
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• 2016

Backbone $^1H$, $^{13}C$ and $^{15}N$ resonance assignments are presented for the anticodon binding domain (residues 557-674) of human glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GRS). Role of the anticodon binding domain (ABD) of GRS as an anticancer ligand has recently been reported and its role in other diseases like Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) and polymyositis have increased its interest. NMR assignments were completed using the isotope [$^{13}C/^{15}N$]-enriched protein and chemical shifts based secondary structure analysis with TALOS+ demonstrate similar secondary structure as reported in X-ray structure PDB 2ZT8, except some C-terminal residues. NMR signals from the N-terminal residues 557 to 571 and 590 to 614 showed very weak or no signals exhibiting dynamics or conformational exchange in NMR timescale.

• Macromolecular Research
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.59-65
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• 2000

We simulated the conformational changes of polymethacrylates which have side chains with different lengths (methyl and butyl) by molecular dynamics simulation technique. Bulk states of atactic amorphous polymers relaxed at a higher temperature were generated. The chain behaviors of polymethacrylates were investigated upon varying temperatures. Molecular structural information was then obtained by characterizing radial distribution function(RDF), mean square displacement, self diffusion constant, and Connolly surfaces, among others. The estimated self diffusion constants and RDF values of PMMA and PBMA were found to be in good agreement with our expectation in view of the chain flexibility.