Low-Frequency Vibrational Modes in Blue Opsin: A Computational Study

摘要

Vibrational excitations of low-frequency collective modes are essential for functionally important conformational transitions in proteins. We have carried out an analysis of the low-frequency modes in blue opsin based on both normal-mode analysis and molecular dynamics simulations. Power spectra obtained by molecular dynamics agree well with the normal modes. A representative set of low-frequency modes is discussed with the help of vector-field representation. We thus demonstrate that terahertz spectroscopy of low-frequency modes might be relevant for identifying those vibrational degrees of freedom that correlate to known conformational changes in opsins.