Jean-Francois Lefevre - Böcker

This text offers a survey of the state of research worldwide on the interactions and dynamics of large biological molecules such as DNA and proteins and on the effects of dynamics upon structure determination. Authors from renowned laboratories and institutions discuss new findings and new directions for the greater understanding of the interactions of molecules to create life-processes. Although the topics covered in the book require a relatively advanced understanding of biomedical/biochemical and biophysical science, the overall range of expertise and focus provides a broad survey of experimental techniques and approaches to the problem of understanding molecular recognition and interaction and the potential for drug design and development.

This volume is a collection of articles from the proceedings of the International School of Structural Biology and Magnetic Resonance 3rd Course: Protein Dynamics, Function, and Design. This NATO Advance Study Institute was held in Erice at the Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture on April 16-28, 1997. The aim of the Institute was to bring together experts applyipg different physical methods to problems of macro­ molecular dynamics-notably x-ray diffraction, NMR and other forms of spectroscopy, and molecular dynamics simulations. Emphasis was placed on those systems and types of problems-such as mechanisms of allosteric control, signal transmission, induced fit to different ligands with its implications for drug design, and the effects of dynamics on structure determination-where a correlation of findings obtained by different methods could shed the most light on the mechanisms involved and stimulate the search for new approaches. The individual articles represent the state of the art in each of the areas cov­ ered and provide a guide to the original literature in this rapidly developing field. v CONTENTS 1. Determining Structures of ProteinlDN A Complexes by NMR Angela M. Gronenbom and G. Marius Clore 2. Fitting Protein Structures to Experimental Data: Lessons from before Your Mother Was Born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Jeffrey C. Hoch, Alan S. Stem, and Peter J. Connolly 3. Multisubunit Allosteric Proteins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 William N. Lipscomb 4. Studying Protein Structure and Function by Directed Evolution: Examples with Engineered Antibodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Andreas Pliickthun 5. High Pressure Effects on Protein Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

From within complex structures of organisms and cells down to the molecular level, biological processes all involve movement. Muscular fibers slide on each other to activate the muscle, as polymerases do along nucleic acids for replicating and transcribing the genetic material. Cells move and organize themselves into organs by recognizing each other through macromolecular surface-specific interactions. These recognition processes involve the mu­ tual adaptation of structures that rely on their flexibility. All sorts of conformational changes occur in proteins involved in through-membrane signal transmission, showing another aspect of the flexibility of these macromolecules. The movement and flexibility are inscribed in the polymeric nature of essential biological macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. For instance, the well-defined structures formed by the long protein chain are held together by weak noncovalent interac­ tions that design a complex potential well in which the protein floats, permanently fluctuating between several micro- or macroconformations in a wide range of frequencies and ampli­ tudes. The inherent mobility of biomolecular edifices may be crucial to the adaptation of their structures to particular functions. Progress in methods for investigating macromolecular structures and dynamics make this hypothesis not only attractive but more and more testable.