Based on the recently derived general expression for the rates of diffusion-controlled reactions, we calculate the rates of dismutation of the superoxide anion radical catalyzed by Cu/Zn superoxide dismutases (SOD). This is the first attempt to calculate the absolute rates of diffusion-controlled enzyme reactions based on the atomiclevel molecular dynamics simulations. All solvent molecules are included explicitly and the effects of the structural flexibility of enzyme, especially those of side chain motions near the active site, are included in the present calculation. In addition, the actual mobility of the substrate molecule is taken into account, which may change as the molecule approaches the active site of enzyme from the bulk solution. The absolute value of the rate constant for the wild type SOD reaction obtained from MD simulation is shown to be in good agreement with the experimental value. The calculated reactivity of a mutant SOD is also in agreement with the experimental result.

We propose an improved solvent contact model to estimate the solvation free energies of amino acids from individual atomic contributions. The modification of the solvation model involves the optimization of three kinds of parameters in the solvation free energy function: atomic fragmental volume, maximum atomic occupancy, and atomic solvation parameters. All of these atomic parameters for 17 atom types are developed by the operation of a standard genetic algorithm in such a way to minimize the difference between experimental and calculated solvation free energies. The present solvation model is able to predict the experimental solvation free energies of amino acids with the squared correlation coefficients of 0.94 and 0.93 for the parameterization with Gaussian and screened Coulomb potential as the envelope functions, respectively. This result indicates that the improved solvent contact model with the newly developed atomic parameters would be a useful tool for the estimation of the molecular solvation free energy of a protein in aqueous solution.