Essential dynamics of lipase binding sites: the effect of inhibitors of different chain length

The biochemical activity of enzymes, such as lipases, is often associated with structural changes in the enzyme resulting in selective and stereospecific reactions with the substrate. To investigate the effect of a substrate and its chain length on the dynamics of the enzyme, we have performed molecular dynamics simulations of the native Rhizomucor miehei lipase (Rml) and lipase-dialkylphosophate complexes, where the length of the alkyl chain ranges from two to 10 carbon atoms. Simulations were performed in water and trajectories of 400 ps were used to analyse the essential motions in these systems. Our results indicate that the internal motions of the Rml and Rml complexes occur in a subspace of only a few degrees of freedom. A high flexibility is observed in solvent-exposed segments, which connect beta-sheets and helices. In particular, loop regions Gly35-Lys50 and Thr57-Asn63 fluctuate extensively in the native enzyme. Upon activation and binding of the inhibitor, involving the displacement of the active site loop, these motions are considerably suppressed. With increasing chain length of the inhibitor, the fluctuations in the essential subspace increase, levelling off at a chain length of 10, which corresponds to the size of the active-site groove.