Normal mode analysis
Contents
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WORKY!
Discussion per section.
information about method per section
re-reference all pictures
add all references/quotes
Introduction
NMA (normal mode analysis) is a time-independent apprach to simulate low-frequency motions and vibrations of protein. These simulation are all based on the harmonic approximation and therefore ignore the influence of the solvent. The proteins are seen as models made out of springs and point masses, which are connected and represent the interatomic forces. Simulation done this way are very easy to do, but are no more than a slight insight into the protein flexibility.
WEBnm@
WEBnm@ is a webserver based application that allows computation and low-frequency analysis of normal nodes of proteins. This computation is fully automated and only different types of results are presented to the user.
Webserver:
Input:
- 1a6z - all chains
Result:
Discussion:
All animated gifs have to be created the hard way, frame after frame, because WEBnm@ does not allow the concurrent saving of more than one frame.
The Normalized Squared Atomic Displacements (nsad) plots show the vibrations according to the amino acid position.
Except for mode 11 there is no special movement inside the alpha helix of chains A and C. The movement is almost everytime between the chains or inside/around the beta strands of chain B and D. This behaviour is also visible by analyzing the plots; the regions of low movement are always around the chains A and C with their corresponding alpha helices and the high movement regions lies within the beta strands of chain B and D.
The movement/vibrations can be described mostly as repulsive or flattening, stretching and twisting.
There seems to be some strange behaviour at figure 4.2 mode 10; it is slighty twitching and we do not know why. Maybe it is because of a wrong frame or some other aspect of visual glitches, we will check that again, if there is time.
ElNemo
ElNémo is a webserver based to work with the Elastic Network Model. It calculates and analyses low-frequency normal modes of proteins.
Webserver:
Input:
- 1a6z
Result:
Discussion:
For all generated models the vibrations are shown in three different perspectives.
The Movement/Vibrations are very similar to these obtained by WEBnm@. There is almost no movement inside the alpha helices of chain A and C and much movement inside and outside the the beta strands of chain B and D. Vibrations between chains can also be observed but these are mostly between A+C and B+D because they form a subunit.
Anisotropic Network Model web server
The Anisotropic Network Model web server uses the fast approach anisotropic network model (elastic network) to calculate the global modes.
Webserver:
Params:
- distance weight: 3
Result:
Discussion:
oGNM – Gaussian network model
Webserver:
Input:
- 1a6z
Params:
- cutoff: 15 Å
Result:
NOMAD-Ref
Webserver:
Params:
- distance weight: 3.0
- cutoff: 15 Å
Result:
Discussion:
All-atom NMA using Gromacs on the NOMAD-Ref server
Webserver:
Params:
- temperature: 600K and 2000K
- pdb ID: 1BPT
Information: We used the given protein 1BPT because our HFE protein (1A6Z) has around 6080 ATOM lines and is therefore too big (limit is 2000 ATOM lines).
Result:
- at 600K
- at 2000K
- with Elastic Network
Discussion: As one can see, there is no big difference between the movement at 600K and 2000K. The only difference is the range of the movent; at 2000K it is slighty more than at 600K which leads to the conclusion that the movements do not really depend on the temperature.
The Elastic Network movements are mostly stretching of the beta sheets or rotations around the center of the protein.