[Soft-matter] Soft Matter and Stat Phys seminar 10 Jun 2022

[Maciej Lisicki]

Dear Soft Matter Colleagues and Friends,

On Friday 10 June 2022 at 9:30 AM at the UW Faculty of Physics (Pasteura 5, Warsaw; room 1.40) we are hosting the final seminar of this term, during which

Bartosz Różycki (IF PAN)

will give a talk

Conformational ensemble of the full-length nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2: coarse-grained simulations and SAXS experiments

Abstract
The nucleocapsid protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus comprises two RNA-binding domains and three regions that are intrinsically disordered. While the structures of the RNA-binding domains have been solved using protein crystallography and NMR, current knowledge of the conformations of the full-length nucleocapsid protein is rather limited. To fill in this knowledge gap, we combined coarse-grained molecular simulations with data from small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments using the ensemble refinement of SAXS (EROS) method. Our results show that the dimer of the full-length nucleocapsid protein exhibits large conformational fluctuations with its radius of gyration ranging from about 4 to 8 nm. The RNA-binding domains do not make direct contacts. The disordered region that links these two domains comprises a hydrophobic alpha-helix which makes frequent and nonspecific contacts with the RNA-binding domains. Each of the intrinsically disordered regions adopts conformations that are locally compact, yet on average, much more extended than Gaussian chains of equivalent lengths. We offer a detailed picture of the conformational ensemble of the nucleocapsid protein dimer under near-physiological conditions, which will be important for understanding the nucleocapsid assembly process.



We warmly welcome everyone to attend the talk and the Soft Matter Coffee Break after the seminar, held in room 4.51 (4th floor).

Maria Ekiel-Jeżewska
Maciej Lisicki
Piotr Szymczak
Panagiotis Theodorakis







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