Current-voltage characteristics of seven-helix proteins from a cubic array of amino acids

Phys Rev E. 2016 Jun;93(6):062401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.93.062401. Epub 2016 Jun 1.

Abstract

The electrical properties of a set of seven-helix transmembrane proteins, whose space arrangement [three-dimensional (3D) structure] is known, are investigated by using regular arrays of the amino acids. These structures, specifically cubes, have topological features similar to those shown by the chosen proteins. The theoretical results show a good agreement between the predicted current-voltage characteristics obtained from a cubic array and those obtained from a detailed 3D structure. The agreement is confirmed by available experiments on bacteriorhodopsin. Furthermore, all the analyzed proteins are found to share the same critical behavior of the voltage-dependent conductance and of its variance. In particular, the cubic arrangement evidences a short plateau of the excess conductance and its variance at high voltages. The results of the present investigation show the possibility to predict the I-V characteristics of a multiple-protein sample even in the absence of detailed knowledge of the proteins' 3D structure.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Amino Acids / chemistry*
  • Electrophysiological Phenomena*
  • Membrane Proteins / chemistry*
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary

Substances

  • Amino Acids
  • Membrane Proteins