Xu Wu, Amire-Brahimi Benjamin, Xie Xiao-Jun, Huang Liying, Ji Jun-Yuan
Department of Chemistry, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, P.O. Box 44370, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA.
Department of Chemistry, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, P.O. Box 44370, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA.
Comput Biol Chem. 2014 Aug;51:1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2014.03.003. Epub 2014 Apr 3.
The Mediator, a conserved multisubunit protein complex in eukaryotic organisms, regulates gene expression by bridging sequence-specific DNA-binding transcription factors to the general RNA polymerase II machinery. In yeast, Mediator complex is organized in three core modules (head, middle and tail) and a separable 'CDK8 submodule' consisting of four subunits including Cyclin-dependent kinase CDK8 (CDK8), Cyclin C (CycC), MED12, and MED13. The 3-D structure of human CDK8-CycC complex has been recently experimentally determined. To take advantage of this structure and the improved theoretical calculation methods, we have performed molecular dynamic simulations to study dynamics of CDK8 and two CDK8 point mutations (D173A and D189N), which have been identified in human cancers, with and without full length of the A-loop, as well as the binding between CDK8 and CycC. We found that CDK8 structure gradually loses two helical structures during the 50-ns molecular dynamic simulation, likely due to the presence of the full-length A-loop. In addition, our studies showed the hydrogen bond occupation of the CDK8 A-loop increases during the first 20-ns MD simulation and stays stable during the later 30-ns MD simulation. Four residues in the A-loop of CDK8 have high hydrogen bond occupation, while the rest residues have low or no hydrogen bond occupation. The hydrogen bond dynamic study of the A-loop residues exhibits three types of changes: increasing, decreasing, and stable. Furthermore, the 3-D structures of CDK8 point mutations D173A, D189N, T196A and T196D have been built by molecular modeling and further investigated by 50-ns molecular dynamic simulations. D173A has the highest average potential energy, while T196D has the lowest average potential energy, indicating that T196D is the most stable structure. Finally, we calculated theoretical binding energy of CDK8 and CycC by MM/PBSA and MM/GBSA methods, and the negative values obtained from both methods demonstrate stability of CDK8-CycC complex. Taken together, these analyses will improve our understanding of the exact functions of CDK8 and the interaction with its partner CycC.
中介体是真核生物中一种保守的多亚基蛋白质复合物,它通过将序列特异性DNA结合转录因子与通用RNA聚合酶II机制连接起来,调节基因表达。在酵母中,中介体复合物由三个核心模块(头部、中部和尾部)和一个可分离的“CDK8亚模块”组成,该亚模块由四个亚基组成,包括细胞周期蛋白依赖性激酶CDK8(CDK8)、细胞周期蛋白C(CycC)、MED12和MED13。人类CDK8 - CycC复合物的三维结构最近已通过实验确定。为了利用这一结构和改进的理论计算方法,我们进行了分子动力学模拟,以研究CDK8和在人类癌症中已被鉴定出的两个CDK8点突变(D173A和D189N)在有无全长A环情况下的动力学,以及CDK8与CycC之间的结合。我们发现,在50纳秒的分子动力学模拟过程中,CDK8结构逐渐失去两个螺旋结构,这可能是由于全长A环的存在。此外,我们的研究表明,在最初20纳秒的分子动力学模拟中,CDK8 A环的氢键占有率增加,在随后30纳秒的分子动力学模拟中保持稳定。CDK8 A环中的四个残基具有较高的氢键占有率,而其余残基的氢键占有率较低或没有。A环残基的氢键动力学研究呈现出三种变化类型:增加、减少和稳定。此外,通过分子建模构建了CDK8点突变D173A、D189N、T196A和T196D的三维结构,并通过50纳秒的分子动力学模拟进行了进一步研究。D173A的平均势能最高,而T196D的平均势能最低,表明T196D是最稳定的结构。最后,我们通过MM/PBSA和MM/GBSA方法计算了CDK8和CycC的理论结合能,两种方法得到的负值都证明了CDK8 - CycC复合物的稳定性。综上所述,这些分析将增进我们对CDK8确切功能及其与伴侣CycC相互作用的理解。