Unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations.

Levan has various potential applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries, such as cholesterol-lowering agents and prebiotics, due to its beneficial properties, which depend on its length and branching degree. A previous study also found that the branching degree of levan affected anti-tumo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Surasak Chunsrivirot, Pongsakorn Kanjanatanin, Rath Pichyangkura
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2018-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6103501?pdf=render
_version_ 1818177182399201280
author Surasak Chunsrivirot
Pongsakorn Kanjanatanin
Rath Pichyangkura
author_facet Surasak Chunsrivirot
Pongsakorn Kanjanatanin
Rath Pichyangkura
author_sort Surasak Chunsrivirot
collection DOAJ
description Levan has various potential applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries, such as cholesterol-lowering agents and prebiotics, due to its beneficial properties, which depend on its length and branching degree. A previous study also found that the branching degree of levan affected anti-tumor activities against SNU-1 and HepG2 tumor cell lines. Despite its promising potential, the properties of levans with different branching degrees are not well understood at the molecular level. In two models of the generalized Born implicit solvent (GBHCT and GBOBC1), we employed replica-exchange molecular dynamics simulations to explore conformational spaces of 34-residue levans (L34) with branching degrees of zero (LFO34B0), one (LFO34B1), three (LFO34B3) and five (LFO34B5), as well as to elucidate their structural and molecular properties. To ensure a fair comparison of the effects of branching degree on these properties, we focused on analyzing the properties of the central 21-residue of the main chains of all systems. Our results show that all major representative conformations tend to form helix-like structures with kinks, where two-kink helix-like structures have the highest population. As branching degree increases, the population of helix-like structures with zero or one kink tends to increase slightly. As the number of kinks in the structures with the same branching degree increases, the average values of the lengths and angles among centers of masses of three consecutive turns of residue i, i+3, and i+6 tended to decrease. Due to its highest occurring frequencies, the O6 (i)-H3O (i+1) hydrogen bond could be important for helix-like structure formation. Moreover, hydrogen bonds forming among the branching residue (br), branching position (bp) and other residues of L34B1, L34B3 and L34B5 were identified. The O1(bp)-H3O(br), O1(br)-H3O(br) and O5(br)-H1O(br) hydrogen bonds were found in the first-, second- and third-highest occurrence frequencies, respectively. Our study provides novel and important insights into conformational spaces and the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees, which tend to form helix-like structures with kinks.
first_indexed 2024-12-11T20:28:01Z
format Article
id doaj.art-bc76a42b89854ea091fda2f0c6c0854a
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1932-6203
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-11T20:28:01Z
publishDate 2018-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj.art-bc76a42b89854ea091fda2f0c6c0854a2022-12-22T00:51:54ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-01138e020257810.1371/journal.pone.0202578Unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations.Surasak ChunsrivirotPongsakorn KanjanataninRath PichyangkuraLevan has various potential applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries, such as cholesterol-lowering agents and prebiotics, due to its beneficial properties, which depend on its length and branching degree. A previous study also found that the branching degree of levan affected anti-tumor activities against SNU-1 and HepG2 tumor cell lines. Despite its promising potential, the properties of levans with different branching degrees are not well understood at the molecular level. In two models of the generalized Born implicit solvent (GBHCT and GBOBC1), we employed replica-exchange molecular dynamics simulations to explore conformational spaces of 34-residue levans (L34) with branching degrees of zero (LFO34B0), one (LFO34B1), three (LFO34B3) and five (LFO34B5), as well as to elucidate their structural and molecular properties. To ensure a fair comparison of the effects of branching degree on these properties, we focused on analyzing the properties of the central 21-residue of the main chains of all systems. Our results show that all major representative conformations tend to form helix-like structures with kinks, where two-kink helix-like structures have the highest population. As branching degree increases, the population of helix-like structures with zero or one kink tends to increase slightly. As the number of kinks in the structures with the same branching degree increases, the average values of the lengths and angles among centers of masses of three consecutive turns of residue i, i+3, and i+6 tended to decrease. Due to its highest occurring frequencies, the O6 (i)-H3O (i+1) hydrogen bond could be important for helix-like structure formation. Moreover, hydrogen bonds forming among the branching residue (br), branching position (bp) and other residues of L34B1, L34B3 and L34B5 were identified. The O1(bp)-H3O(br), O1(br)-H3O(br) and O5(br)-H1O(br) hydrogen bonds were found in the first-, second- and third-highest occurrence frequencies, respectively. Our study provides novel and important insights into conformational spaces and the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees, which tend to form helix-like structures with kinks.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6103501?pdf=render
spellingShingle Surasak Chunsrivirot
Pongsakorn Kanjanatanin
Rath Pichyangkura
Unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations.
PLoS ONE
title Unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations.
title_full Unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations.
title_fullStr Unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations.
title_full_unstemmed Unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations.
title_short Unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34-residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations.
title_sort unraveling the structural and molecular properties of 34 residue levans with various branching degrees by replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6103501?pdf=render
work_keys_str_mv AT surasakchunsrivirot unravelingthestructuralandmolecularpropertiesof34residuelevanswithvariousbranchingdegreesbyreplicaexchangemoleculardynamicssimulations
AT pongsakornkanjanatanin unravelingthestructuralandmolecularpropertiesof34residuelevanswithvariousbranchingdegreesbyreplicaexchangemoleculardynamicssimulations
AT rathpichyangkura unravelingthestructuralandmolecularpropertiesof34residuelevanswithvariousbranchingdegreesbyreplicaexchangemoleculardynamicssimulations