Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 28: Focus: Charge Effects in Soft and Biological Matter II (joint CPP, BP, ST)
BP 28.6: Hauptvortrag
Donnerstag, 25. März 2010, 15:45–16:15, H37
In-silico simulation of reentrant protein condensation with highly valent counterions — Sophie Weggler1, Michael Ziller2, Fajun Zhang2, Frank Schreiber2, Oliver Kohlbacher3, and •Andreas Hildebrandt1 — 1Center for Bioinformatics, Bld. E 2.1, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany — 2Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany — 3Zentrum für Bioinformatik Tübingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Recently, it has been shown experimentally that negatively charged globular proteins in solution undergo a condensation upon adding trivalent counterions between two critical concentrations C* and C**, C*<C**. This reentrant condensation had previously been observed for DNA and suitable colloidal systems, where the phenomenon is well-understood theoretically, but not for proteins: while the former systems can be well approximated by simple geometries and constant surface charge distributions, proteins feature complex charge patterns on their surface and can occur in diverse geometrical arrangements.
Consequently, the mechanism behind reentrant protein condensation differs from that behind reentrant DNA condensation and can be explained by short-ranged electrostatic interactions between multivalent cations and acidic residues of the protein.
In my talk, I will present a theoretical model for reentrant protein condensation and will introduce a Monte Carlo technique for its numerical simulation.