Molecular Dynamics Simulations of β-Ketoacyl-, β-Hydroxyacyl-, and<i>trans</i>-2-Enoyl-Acyl Carrier Proteins of<i>Escherichia coli</i>
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Acyl carrier protein (ACP) is the central player in fatty acid (FA) biosynthesis. It covalently binds all FA intermediates and presents them to the enzymes needed for elongation. Bacterial ACP must interact with a large number of proteins, which raises the question of how different acyl-ACPs are recognized and distinguished from each other. We performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the FA synthase intermediates beta-ketoacyl-, beta-hydroxyacyl, and trans-2-enoyl-ACP spanning from 4 to 18 carbon groups in length. These forms of acyl-ACP have largely yet to be characterized experimentally, and our simulations provide a first insight into these structures. The simulations were conducted with the acyl chain directed into the solvent, as well as in a solvent-protected conformation inside the hydrophobic pocket of Escherichia coli ACP. Spontaneous migration from the solvent-exposed state into the hydrophobic binding pocket of ACP was seen in each of the intermediate classes studied, but not in all the individual simulations. This confirms that the intermediates can enter and utilize the same hydrophobic pockets as saturated acyl chains. In addition, a recurring, novel association of the acyl chains with loop I of ACP was observed that may be occupied transiently before entry into the hydrophobic pocket. The MD simulations of the acyl chains in a solvent-shielded state reveal that the polar functional group in the beta position of the beta-ketoacyl and beta-hydroxyacyl chains anchors these moieties at the cavity entrance, while the chains without a polar group in the beta position lack this additional anchoring atom. This leads to a binding mode in which the beta-ketoacyl and beta-hydroxyacyl chains are positioned further from the bottom of the pocket compared to the saturated and enoyl chains, particularly in short chain (
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".