Balog Erika, Becker Torsten, Oettl Martin, Lechner Ruep, Daniel Roy, Finney John, Smith Jeremy C
IWR, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 368, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Jul 9;93(2):028103. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.028103.
The change in the vibrational density of states of a protein (dihydrofolate reductase) on binding a ligand (methotrexate) is determined using inelastic neutron scattering. The vibrations of the complex soften significantly relative to the unbound protein. The resulting free-energy change, which is directly determined by the density of states change, is found to contribute significantly to the binding equilibrium.
