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Applying an empirical hydropathic forcefield in refinement may improve low-resolution protein X-ray crystal structures.

ABSTRACT: The quality of X-ray crystallographic models for biomacromolecules refined from data obtained at high-resolution is assured by the data itself. However, at low-resolution, >3.0 Å, additional information is supplied by a forcefield coupled with an associated refinement protocol. These resulting structures are often of lower quality and thus unsuitable for downstream activities like structure-based drug discovery.An X-ray crystallography refinement protocol that enhances standard methodology by incorporating energy terms from the HINT (Hydropathic INTeractions) empirical forcefield is described. This protocol was tested by refining synthetic low-resolution structural data derived from 25 diverse high-resolution structures, and referencing the resulting models to these structures. The models were also evaluated with global structural quality metrics, e.g., Ramachandran score and MolProbity clashscore. Three additional structures, for which only low-resolution data are available, were also re-refined with this methodology.The enhanced refinement protocol is most beneficial for reflection data at resolutions of 3.0 Å or worse. At the low-resolution limit, ?4.0 Å, the new protocol generated models with C? positions that have RMSDs that are 0.18 Å more similar to the reference high-resolution structure, Ramachandran scores improved by 13%, and clashscores improved by 51%, all in comparison to models generated with the standard refinement protocol. The hydropathic forcefield terms are at least as effective as Coulombic electrostatic terms in maintaining polar interaction networks, and significantly more effective in maintaining hydrophobic networks, as synthetic resolution is decremented. Even at resolutions ?4.0 Å, these latter networks are generally native-like, as measured with a hydropathic interactions scoring tool.

SUBMITTER: Koparde VN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3016398 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Applying an empirical hydropathic forcefield in refinement may improve low-resolution protein X-ray crystal structures.

Koparde Vishal N VN Scarsdale J Neel JN Kellogg Glen E GE

PloS one 20110105 1

<h4>Background</h4>The quality of X-ray crystallographic models for biomacromolecules refined from data obtained at high-resolution is assured by the data itself. However, at low-resolution, >3.0 Å, additional information is supplied by a forcefield coupled with an associated refinement protocol. These resulting structures are often of lower quality and thus unsuitable for downstream activities like structure-based drug discovery.<h4>Methodology</h4>An X-ray crystallography refinement protocol t ...[more]

PMID: 21246043

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Project description:This study aims to solve the site-occupancy issues of any crystalline substance, showing that the structure refinement results should not be limited to a simple description of the crystal geometry but should go beyond that, providing refined site-scattering values consistent with the chemical data. A detailed description of the structure of the amphibole-supergroup minerals is very challenging owing to their complex chemical composition that renders the process of cation partition extremely difficult, particularly because of the occurrence of multivalent elements. Since amphiboles naturally occur under a fibrous morphology and have largely been used to produce asbestos, there is a growing demand for detailed and accurate structural data in order to study the relationships between structure, composition and toxicity. The present study proposes a recommended refinement procedure for both X-ray single-crystal structure refinement (SREF) and Rietveld analysis for tremolite, selected as a test case. The corresponding structural results are compared to estimate the ‘degree of confidence’ of the Rietveld refinement with regard to SREF. In particular, it is shown that the interpretation of the electron density of the tremolite structure by SREF is model dependent. By assuming that the site-scattering values from SREF should be as close as possible to those from electron microprobe analysis, as a crucial constraint for the correct description of the final crystal-chemical model, it is found that it is best satisfied by using partially ionized scattering curves (SCs) for O and Si, and neutral SCs (neutral oxygen curves or NOCs) for other atoms. This combination leads to the best fit to the diffraction data. Moreover, it is found that Rietveld refinement using NOCs produces the best structural results, in excellent agreement with SREF. It is worth noting that, due to the complexity of the diffraction pattern and the fairly large number of freely refinable parameters, refinements with different combinations of SCs produce results almost indistinguishable from a statistical point of view, albeit showing significant differences from a structural point of view.

Dataset Information

Applying an empirical hydropathic forcefield in refinement may improve low-resolution protein X-ray crystal structures.

Publications

Applying an empirical hydropathic forcefield in refinement may improve low-resolution protein X-ray crystal structures.

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