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Gating of the Mechanosensitive Channel Protein MscL: The Interplay of Membrane and Protein

Center for Biophysical Modeling and Simulation and Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Gregory A. Voth, University of Utah, Dept. of Chemistry, 315 S. 1400 E. Rm 2020, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0850. Tel.: 801-581-7272; E-mail: voth{at}chem.utah.edu.

The mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (MscL) belongs to a family of transmembrane channel proteins in bacteria and functions as a safety valve that relieves the turgor pressure produced by osmotic downshock. MscL gating can be triggered solely by stretching of the membrane. This work reports an effort to understand this mechanotransduction by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation on the MscL of mycobacterium tuberculosis embedded in a palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylethanolamine membrane. Equilibrium MD under zero membrane tension produced a more compact protein structure, as measured by its radii of gyration, compared to the crystal structure, in agreement with previous experimental findings. Even under a large applied tension up to 1000 dyn/cm, the MscL lateral dimension largely remained unchanged after up to 20 ns of simulation. A nonequilibrium MD simulation of 3% membrane expansion showed a significant increase in membrane rigidity upon MscL inclusion, which can contribute to efficient mechanotransduction. Direct observation of channel opening was possible only when an explicit lateral bias force was applied to each of the five subunits of MscL in the radially outward direction. Using this force, open structures with a large pore of radius 10 Å could be obtained. The channel opening takes place in a stepwise manner and concurrently with the water chain formation across the channel, which occurs without direct involvement of protein hydrophilic residues. The N-terminal S1 helices stabilize the open structure, and the membrane asymmetry (different lipid density on the two leaflets of membrane) promotes channel opening.