第183回 第2部

High resolution structures of biological molecules provide insights into their functions. Such structures are often derived from X-ray crystallographic experiments, but the information is not complete. Crystals are first cryo-cooled before collecting X-ray data. It has been suggested that, while backbone structures are usually very similar between room-temperature and cryo-temperature, cryo-cooling may hamper biologically relevant dynamics. In addition, X-ray crystallography requires crystals, which might lead to some artifacts as biomolecules might interact which each other, stabilizing specific conformations which might be different than in solution.
Furthermore, to fully understand function of biomolecules, dynamics need also to be considered. However, such X-ray crystallographic structure only represent one specific snapshot of the overall conformational space that biomolecules can cover. Therefore, to complement experimental data, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations can be utilized to connect structure, dynamics and function. We will be illustrating those points with studies we have been conducting on different biological systems.