Functional Funnel of Molecular Motors

蛋白质马达对外加负荷的响应灵活，能在温和的温度条件下高效工作。本课题对蛋白质机器进行了理论研究，揭示了蛋白质机器的物理原理：(1)构建了粗粒度模型来分析肌球蛋白等蛋白质的大结构波动，并建立了理解变构转变的理论框架；(2)模拟了蛋白质运动的毫秒时间尺度轨迹；(3)提出并严格检验了分子马达的功能漏斗假说。

Protein motors show the superior abilities in working efficiently at the mild temperature by responding flexibly to the applied load. In this research project, protein machines were studied theoretically to reveal their physical principles :(1) Coarse-grained models were constructed to analyze the large structural fluctuation of myosins and other proteins, and the theoretical framework to understand allosteric transitions is developed,(2) the millisecond time-scale trajectories of moving proteins were simulated, and(3) the functional funnel hypothesis of molecular motors was proposed and critically examined.