Professor S. Vishveshwara
Molecular Biophysics Unit
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore, India

Friday, May 30, 2003
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

Ribonuclease A (RNase A) is a family of RNases which are among the most studied enzymes in molecular biology. Two eosinophil associated ribonucleases, Eosinophil cationic protein and eosinophil derived neurotoxin consist of about 130 amino acid residues and are implicated in a variety of diverse biological functions related to immunological and neurological diseases. Molecular dynamics simulations and a variety of analyses, e.g. principle component analysis, of the resulting trajectories of the two eosinophil associated ribonucleases in aqueous environment will be described. Using the concepts of graph theory, clusters involving side chain hydrogen bonds and hydration patterns have been identified. The role of non-secondary structural hydrogen bonds involving both main chain and side chain polar atoms along with the hydration patterns as determinants of the structure and function of RNase A family proteins will be discussed.