The impact of N-terminal phosphorylation on LHCII conformation in state transition

State transition is an important protection mechanism of plants for maintaining optimal efficiency through redistributing unbalanced excitation energy between photosystem II （PSII） and photosystem I （PSI）. This process depends on the reversible phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of the major light-harvesting complex II （LHCII） and its bi-directional migration between PSII and PSI. But it remains unclear how phosphorylation/dephosphorylation modulates the LHCII conformation and further regulates its reversible migration. Here molecular dynamics simulations （MDS） were employed to elucidate the impact of phosphorylation on LHCII conformation. The results indicated that N-terminal phosphorylation loosened LHCII trimer with decreased hydrogen bond （H-bond） interactions and extended the distances between neighboring monomers, which stemmed from the conformational ad- justment of each monomer itself. Global conformational change of LHCII monomer started from its stromal N- terminal （including the phosphorylation sites） by enhancing its interaction to lipid membrane and by adjusting the interaction network with surrounded inter-monomer andintra-monomer transmembrane helixes of B, C, and A, and finally triggered the reorientation of transmembrane helixes and transferred the conformational change to luminal side helixes and loops. These results further our understanding in molecular mechanism of LHCII migration during state transition from the phosphorylation-induced microstructural feature of LHCII.

Probe stiffness regulates receptor-ligand bond lifetime under force

Receptor-ligand bond dissociation under applied force is crucial to elucidate its biological functionality when the molecular bond is usually connected to a mechanical probe. While the impact of probe stiffness, k, on bond rupture force has recently at- tracted more and more attention, the mechanism of how it affects the bond lifetime, however, remains unclear. Here we quanti- fied the dissociation lifetime of selectin-ligand bond using an optical trap assay with low stiffness ranging from 3.5×10^-3 to 4.7×10^-2 pN/nm. Our results indicated that bond lifetime yielded distinct distributions with different probe stiffness, implying the stochastic feature of bond dissociation. It was also found that the mean lifetime varied with probe stiffness and that the catch bond nature was visualized at k≥3.0×10^-2 pN/nm. This work furthered the understanding of the forced dissociation of se- lectin-ligand bond at varied probe stiffness, which is physiologically relevant to the tethered rolling of leukoeytes under blood flow.

Spreading of human neutrophils on an ICAM-1-immobilized substrate under shear flow

Neutrophil (PMN) spreading on endothelium, mediated by the interactions between surface-bound β2 integrin and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in the inflammatory cascade, is crucial for PMN post-adhesion and trans-migration in blood flow. The underlying mechanisms by which shear flow regulates PMN spreading dynamics are not well understood. Here, a parallel-plate flow chamber assay was applied to quantify the time course of PMN adhesion and spreading on an ICAM-1-immobilized substrate. Two types of shear flow, steady flows at shear stresses of 0.2, 0.5, and 1 dyne/cm2 and stepwise flows at 0, 1, and 10 dyne/cm2, were used to elucidate the impact of shear flow on cell adhesion and spreading. The number of adhered PMNs, the fraction of spreading PMNs and the projected area of spread PMNs were determined and were found to correlate with the distribution of surface-bound β2 integrin subunit (CD11a, CD11b, or CD18). The results indicate that PMN spreading on an ICAM-1 substrate is bi-directionally regulated under shear flow. CD11a, CD11b and CD18 subunits of β2 integrin contribute distinctly to PMN spreading on ICAM-1 substrates. This work provides new insights into understanding PMN spreading on the endothelium, mediated by β2 integrin and ICAM-1 under shear flow.

Quantifying cell binding kinetics mediated by surface-bound blood type B antigen to immobilized antibodies

Cell adhesion is crucial to many biological processes, such as inflammatory responses, tumor metastasis and thrombosis formation. Recently a commercial surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based BIAcore biosensor has been extended to determine cell binding mediated by surface-bound bio-molecular interactions. How such cell binding is quantitatively governed by kinetic rates and regulating factors, however, has been poorly understood. Here we developed a novel assay to determine the binding kinetics of surface-bound biomolecular interactions using a commercial BIAcore 3000 bio-sensor. Human red blood cells (RBCs) presenting blood group B antigen and CM5 chip bearing immobilized anti-B monoclonal antibody (mAb) were used to obtain the time courses of response unit, or sensorgrams, when flowing RBCs over the chip surface. A cellular kinetic model was proposed to correlate the sensorgrams with kinetic rates. Impacts of regulating factors, such as cell concentration, flow duration and rate, antibody-presenting level, as well as pH value and osmotic pressure of suspending medium were tested systematically, which imparted the confidence that the approach can be applied to kinetic measurements of cell adhesion mediated by surface-bound biomolecular interactions. These results provided a new insight into quantifying cell binding using a commercial SPR-based BIAcore biosensor.