IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pcbi00/0030172.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Signal Propagation in Proteins and Relation to Equilibrium Fluctuations

Author

Listed:
  • Chakra Chennubhotla
  • Ivet Bahar

Abstract

Elastic network (EN) models have been widely used in recent years for describing protein dynamics, based on the premise that the motions naturally accessible to native structures are relevant to biological function. We posit that equilibrium motions also determine communication mechanisms inherent to the network architecture. To this end, we explore the stochastics of a discrete-time, discrete-state Markov process of information transfer across the network of residues. We measure the communication abilities of residue pairs in terms of hit and commute times, i.e., the number of steps it takes on an average to send and receive signals. Functionally active residues are found to possess enhanced communication propensities, evidenced by their short hit times. Furthermore, secondary structural elements emerge as efficient mediators of communication. The present findings provide us with insights on the topological basis of communication in proteins and design principles for efficient signal transduction. While hit/commute times are information-theoretic concepts, a central contribution of this work is to rigorously show that they have physical origins directly relevant to the equilibrium fluctuations of residues predicted by EN models.: In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of studies using network models for understanding biomolecular systems dynamics. Essentially, two different groups of studies have been performed, driven by two different communities. The first is based on molecular biophysics and statistical mechanical concepts. Normal mode analyses using elastic network models lie in this group. The second is based on information theory and spectral graph methods. The present study demonstrates for the first time that signal transduction events directly depend on the fluctuation dynamics of the biomolecular systems, thus establishing the bridge between the (newly proposed) information-theoretic and the (well-established) physically inspired approaches. We have applied the new approach to five different enzymes. Functionally active residues are shown to possess enhanced communication propensities. Furthermore, secondary structural elements emerge as efficient mediators of communication. These results provide us with important insights for protein design and mechanisms of allostery.

Suggested Citation

  • Chakra Chennubhotla & Ivet Bahar, 2007. "Signal Propagation in Proteins and Relation to Equilibrium Fluctuations," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(9), pages 1-11, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pcbi00:0030172
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030172
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030172&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030172?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. V. Ejov & J. A. Filar & M. Haythorpe & J. F. Roddick & S. Rossomakhine, 2018. "A note on using the resistance-distance matrix to solve Hamiltonian cycle problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 261(1), pages 393-399, February.
    2. Zheng Yang & Peter Májek & Ivet Bahar, 2009. "Allosteric Transitions of Supramolecular Systems Explored by Network Models: Application to Chaperonin GroEL," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(4), pages 1-21, April.
    3. Hsiao-Mei Lu & Jie Liang, 2009. "Perturbation-based Markovian Transmission Model for Probing Allosteric Dynamics of Large Macromolecular Assembling: A Study of GroEL-GroES," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-13, October.
    4. Isaure Chauvot de Beauchêne & Ariane Allain & Nicolas Panel & Elodie Laine & Alain Trouvé & Patrice Dubreuil & Luba Tchertanov, 2014. "Hotspot Mutations in KIT Receptor Differentially Modulate Its Allosterically Coupled Conformational Dynamics: Impact on Activation and Drug Sensitivity," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-25, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pcbi00:0030172. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ploscompbiol (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.