A. Laederach et al., Automated docking of maltose, 2-deoxymaltose, and maltotetraose into the soybean beta-amylase active site, PROTEINS, 37(2), 1999, pp. 166-175
In this study, products and substrates were docked into the active site of
beta-amylase using the simulated annealing algorithm AutoDock, Lowest-energ
y conformers reproduced known crystallographic atom positions within 0.4 to
0.8 Angstrom rmsd. Docking studies were carried out with both open and clo
sed configurations of the beta-amylase mobile flap, a loop comprising resid
ues 96 to 103, Ligands with two rings docked within the cleft near the acti
ve site when the flap was open, but those with four rings did not. The flap
must be closed for alpha-maltotetraose to adopt a conformation allowing it
to dock near the crystallographically determined subsites, The closed flap
is necessary for productive but not for nonproductive binding, and therefo
re it plays a essential role in catalysis, The gain in total binding energy
upon closing of the flap for alpha-maltose docked to subsites -2, -1 and 1, +2 is about 22 kcal/mol, indicating more favorable interactions are poss
ible with the flap closed, Larger intermolecular interaction energies are o
bserved for two alpha-maltose molecules docked to subsites -2, -1 and +1, 2 than for one alpha-maltotetraose molecule docked from subsites -2 to +2,
suggesting: that it is only upon cleavage of the alpha-1,4 linkage that opt
imal closed-flap binding can occur with the crytallographically determined
enzyme structure. Proteins 1999;37:166-175, (C) 1999 WiIey-Liss, Inc.