Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Protein structure, stability and folding in the cell – in silico biophysical approaches

Margaret Cheung, Department of Physics, University of Houston

Abstract

How the crowded environment inside a cell affects the structural conformation of a protein with aspherical shape is a vital question because the geometry of proteins and protein-protein complexes are far from globules in vivo. Here we address this question by combining computational and experimental studies of a spherical protein (i.e. apoflavodoxin), a football-shaped protein (i.e., Borrelia burgdorferi VlsE) and a dumbbell-shaped protein (i.e. calmodulin) under crowded, cell-like conditions. The results show that macromolecular crowding affects protein folding dynamics as well as an overall protein shape associated with changes in secondary structures. Our work demonstrates the malleability of "native" proteins and implies that crowding-induced shape changes may be important for protein function and malfunction in vivo. *Refreshments served at 2:15.