Molecular evidence of stereo-specific lactoferrin dimers in solution

Björn A. Persson (1) , Mikael Lund (1) , Jan Forsman (1) , Dereck Chatterton , Torbjörn Åkesson (1)

1 Department of Theoretical Chemistry

Gathering experimental evidence suggests that bovine as well as human lactoferrin self-associate in aqueous solution. Still, a molecular level explanation is unavailable. Using force field based molecular modeling of the proteinprotein interaction free energy we demonstrate (1) that lactoferrin forms highly stereo-specific dimers at neutral pH and (2) that the self-association is driven by a high charge complementarity across the contact surface of the proteins. Our theoretical predictions of dimer formation are verified by electrophoretic mobility and N-terminal sequence analysis on bovine lactoferrin.

Mots clés: Protein-protein interaction; Lactoferrin; Self-assembly; Stereospecific

Domaines: Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]

Björn A. Persson, Mikael Lund, Jan Forsman, Dereck Chatterton, Torbjörn Åkesson. Molecular evidence of stereo-specific lactoferrin dimers in solution. Biophysical Chemistry, 2010, 151 (3), pp.187. ⟨10.1016/j.bpc.2010.06.005⟩. ⟨hal-00671845⟩