1. Molecular Dynamics Studies of the Gating Mechanism of a Mechanosensitive Ion Channel

2. Molecular Dynamics Simulation of MscL in POPC Membrane

3. Overview
What are mechanosensitive (MS) channels, where are they found, and why are they interesting?
What has been learned about MS channels already?
How can molecular dynamics help us understand MS channels?

4. MS channels are ubiquitous
Eukaryotes: Mid1 gene in yeast (Kanzaki et al, Science (1999), v285,
Mammals: TRAAK (Maingret, JBC 274, 1999.
Haloferax volcanii, a halophilic archaeon.
Prokaryotes: MscL in E. coli, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, many others.

5. Biological Roles of MS Channels
balance
hearing
touch
gravity
cardiovascular regulation

6. Membrane tension and osmotic pressure
Osmotic downshock
Membrane tension increases
H20
H20
K+, osmo- protectants excreted

7. Physical Properties of Lipid Bilayers
Diverse lipid composition – differences in lateral tension profile
Elastic modulus much higher than either shear or bending modulus
Figure from Voet & Voet

8. How Cells Sense Pressure
Most eukaryotic MS channels require coupling to the cytoskeleton and/or the extracellular matrix (Sachs and Morris, 1998).
Bacterial MscL is functional in reconstituted lipid bilayers (Sukharev et al., 1994).

9. Discovery and Isolation of MscL
MS channels discovered in chick skeletal muscle cells (Guharay and Sachs, 1984)
Patch-clamp studies of E. coli revealed three MS activities: MscL, MscS, and MscM
MscL identified as a 17-kD protein, and the corresponding mscl gene cloned (Sukharev et al., 1994)

10. Physiological role of MscL
MscL is an emergency safety valve for bacteria – the line of last defense against cell lysis.
MscL gates at tensions approaching the membrane rupture tension.
Of the three E. coli Msc channels, MscL has the highest conductance and allows the largest solutes to pass through, without resulting in lysis of the cell.

11. Prokaryotic MscL Homologs
High degree of conservation in primary sequence, especially in transmembrane helix regions.
Chang et al., Science, v282, 1998, pp

12. Pentameric Structure of MscL

13. K31 Mutations in E.coli K31D and K31E slow the growth of E. coli
The effect is partially mollified by high-osmolarity solvent.
These mutants retain less K+, and mutant channels open at lower tension.
Comparison of whole-cell and patch-clamp results indicates role of membrane potential.

14. Gain-of-function Mutations
Ou et al, PNAS v95, pp , 1998.

15. Helix Mutations Mapping of mutations onto MscL structure
Yellow: Very severe Ala20, Val21, Gly24, Thr28.
Green: Severe Leu17.
Blah blah blah blah

16. Hydrophobicity of a Key Residue Controls Gating
Gly22 was mutated to all other 19 amino acids The hydrophobicity of the mutant residue modulated the gating threshold, which affected the growth rate.
Yoshimura et al., Biophys. J. 77, 1998.

17. Patch-clamp calibration of MscL
Measure conductance vs. pressure of MscL in lipid patch
Relate pressure to tension via T = p X r/2

18. Free Energy Changes in Gating
Patch-clamp experiments relate membrane tension T to channel open probability P0:
P0 = 1/[1+exp(DE-TDA)/kBT].
But discrepancies with kinetic data indicate that this is not a two-state system!

19. Single channel current measurements

20. Multiple Conductance States in MscL
Model single-channel kinetics using linear sequential model: C1-S2-S3-S4-O5
Measure rate as a function of membrane tension: k = k0 exp(aT), where a is the tension sensitivity.

21. Summary of calibration results
Rate limiting step is k12, for which the energy barrier is 38 kBT.
All states > S1 have about the same energy and are insensitive to tension.
Calculated cross-sectional area (based on conductance measurements and assuming a 4 nm channel thickness) gives a channel cross-section of nm, hence an outer diameter of nm.

22. Molecular Dynamics Simulation of MscL in POPC Membrane

23. Side View
Red: TM1 Blue: TM2 Gray: N-terminus Pink: C-terminus

24. Top View o
85 A

25. System Setup Protein structure from PDB (entry 1msl).
Residues 1-9 were disordered in the crystal structure; these were not modeled.
POPC membrane from previous (constant volume) simulation by Heller (1993); membrane was ‘squared off’ and the protein was inserted in the middle.
Equilibrated water box added for solvation.
Total of 52,473 atoms.

26. Simulation Protocol
Molecular dynamics carried using the program NAMD2.
Force field: CHARMM26, TIP3P water, periodic boundary conditions, full electrostatics using Particle Mesh Ewald (PME) summation.
Dynamics: NpT ensemble using Langevin dynamics / Langevin piston. Langevin decay time 10 ps-1. Isotropic pressure of 1 atm in a flexible rectangular cell.
Equilibration for 1 ns at 310 K with velocity reassignment, followed by 2 ns of Langevin dynamics.

27. Unit Cell Dimensions
The periodic cell flattened and widened while maintaining a nearly constant volume. Mainly due to electrostatics.

28. RMSD from initial structure
All Ca
Ca of TM helices

29. RMS fluctuations for Ca atoms
Removed center-of-mass translation from helix Ca.
Largest fluctuations in loop regions.

30. RMS fluctuations for TM helices

31. RMS fluctuations for helices taken separately
TM1 (residues 15 to 43
TM2 (residues 69 to 89)

32. Future Simulation Work
Model the N-terminus residues – amphipathic helix?
Analyze lipid-protein interactions
Analyze correlated equilibrium motions of the protein (normal mode analysis, principle component analysis, singular value decomposition)
Measure water accessibility of helix residues

33. Modeling Challenges
Large-scale conformational changes are too slow to observe in normal MD simulations.
Multi-scale analysis: implicit water, implicit lipid bilayer.
Role of the membrane potential

34. Acknowledgements Justin Gullingsrud and Dorina Kosztin
Computational resources: National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
Figures created using VMD and Tachyon