Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

New generation of elastic network models

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 37; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.sbi.2015.11.013

1879-033X

José Ramón López‐Blanco, Pablo Chacón,

RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

The intrinsic flexibility of proteins and nucleic acids can be grasped from remarkably simple mechanical models of particles connected by springs. In recent decades, Elastic Network Models (ENMs) combined with Normal Model Analysis widely confirmed their ability to predict biologically relevant motions of biomolecules and soon became a popular methodology to reveal large-scale dynamics in multiple structural biology scenarios. The simplicity, robustness, low computational cost, and relatively high accuracy are the reasons behind the success of ENMs. This review focuses on recent advances in the development and application of ENMs, paying particular attention to combinations with experimental data. Successful application scenarios include large macromolecular machines, structural refinement, docking, and evolutionary conservation.