Proteins
Probing ligand binding of endothiapepsin by `temperature-resolved' macromolecular crystallography
Continuous developments in cryogenic X-ray crystallography have provided most of our knowledge of 3D protein structures, which has recently been further augmented by revolutionary advances in cryoEM.
- A single structural conformation identified at cryogenic temperatures may introduce a fictitious structure as a result of cryogenic cooling artefacts, limiting the overview of inherent protein physiological dynamics, which play a critical role in the biological functions of proteins.
- A room-temperature X-ray crystallographic method using temperature as a trigger to record movie-like structural snapshots has been developed. The method has been used to show how TL00150, a 175.15 Da fragment, undergoes binding-mode changes in endothiapepsin.
- A surprising fragment-binding discrepancy was observed between the cryo-cooled and physiological temperature structures, and multiple binding poses and their interplay with DMSO were captured.
- The observations here open up new promising prospects for structure determination and interpretation at physiological temperatures with implications for structure-based drug discovery.