Structure, function, and evolutionary conservation in ATP synthase

Date

Jan 31, 2023

Time

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Speaker

Pablo Sartori

Affiliation

IGC, Portugal

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Host

Carl Modes

Description

One of the tenets of molecular biology is that dynamical transitions between three dimensional structures largely determine the function of proteins. Therefore, it seems only natural that evolutionary analysis of proteins, presently based on their primary sequence, needs to shift its focus towardsprotein function, as assessed by corresponding structural transitions. We will show how to adapt the formalism of finite strain analysis, developed in condensed matter physics and engineering, and apply it to structural transitions of proteins. As a case study, we will focus on the ATP synthase, for which our Protein Strain Analysis (PSA) provides a strain distribution on the protein structure associated with functional transitions. By analyzing the strain patterns for ATP synthases across different species, we show that they are evolutionarily conserved for the same functional transition. This observed strain conservation across evolutionary distant species indicates that this quantity should be essential in future structure-based evolutionary studies of protein function.

Last modified: Feb 1, 2023, 7:36:47 AM