Regensburg 2013 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 11: Posters: Statistical Physics in Biological Systems (joint with DY)

BP 11.16: Poster

Montag, 11. März 2013, 17:30–19:30, Poster B2

Pulling experiments on biological molecules: model analysis and simulation — •Katharina Wenzel and Andreas Heuer — Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster

The implementation of AFM-pulling routines by Steered Molecular Dynamics (SMD) has created a powerful tool to provide information of the unfolding and refolding process of biological molecules. Here, a molecule is stretched under pulling with the help of an umbrella potential where the choice of pull speed and cantilever stiffness can play a critical role in the unfolding pathway. To investigate the influence of these parameters several pull experiments under the same circumstances are simulated with the Trp-cage Miniprotein TC5b in vacuo. It can be shown that simulations can lead to very unstable behaviour, especially for higher force speed and stiff cantilever.

To get a more general understanding a basic setup for pulling experiments with one particle under Brownian motion is implemented. Likewise the chosen pathway over the energy barrier as well as the degree of fluctuations strongly depend on the chosen speed and stiffness.