Chemical signaling throughout the organism is initiated by molecular recognition of small biomolecules by receptor binding sites. Recognition is accompanied by conformational changes of the binding site, through induced fit, selection of pre-existing conformers, or a combination of the two, and these are amplified over distance and time to produce the biological response. In the case of rapidly gated synaptic receptors, the amplification propagates within the receptor macromolecule itself and occurs within as little as tens of microseconds (1). Structural counterparts of the initial recognition step likely evolved to provide this close spatial and temporal coupling. To understand the initial recognition step in rapidly gated synaptic receptors, we examined conformational changes due to agonist occupancy in AChBP, 1 a prototype of the nicotinic receptor ligand binding domain (2).The nicotinic receptor belongs to the Cys loop superfamily of rapidly gated synaptic receptors that transduce agonist binding into opening of an intrinsic ion pore. Although a complete atomic structure has not been determined for any member of the superfamily, atomic resolution data recently emerged for AChBP (3, 4), a close homolog of the ligand binding domain of the ␣7 neuronal nicotinic receptor. AChBP has proven to be a valuable model system for clarifying aspects of ligand recognition in nicotinic receptors, including structural modeling (5-7), dynamics of receptor ligand binding domains (8), computational docking of ligands (9, 10), and direct monitoring of ligand occupancy by changes in intrinsic Trp fluorescence (11, 12).Here we delineated ACh-dependent conformational changes in AChBP by prolonged MD simulation and compared these with conformational changes detected by steady-state and time-resolved measurements of intrinsic Trp fluorescence. MD simulation revealed asymmetric relaxation of the AChBP homopentamer without ACh bound, but maintenance of the symmetrical structure with ACh bound. Differences between the ACh-free and ACh-bound structures revealed conformational changes linked to agonist occupancy. Conformational changes predicted by simulation were verified by measurements of intrinsic Trp fluorescence, showing that binding of ACh establishes close register of two Trp side chains from opposing subunits and draws the peripheral C-loop inward to occlude the entrance of the binding cavity.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURESMolecular Docking and Dynamics Simulation-We used the AMBER 7 program (13) to conduct molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of AChBP in the presence of explicit solvent molecules at room temperature, without ACh bound or with ACh bound to one, two, or all five binding sites. Atomic coordinates of AChBP (3) were downloaded from the Protein Data Bank (Protein Data Bank code 1I9B). To prepare the protein structure for docking and MD simulation, water, ions, and HEPES were first removed from the crystal structure. Partial atomic charges were then assigned to each atom of the protein using the restrained electrostatic poten...