Cell and Developmental Biology Commons^™

Structure-Based Network Analysis Of Activation Mechanisms In The Erbb Family Of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases: The Regulatory Spine Residues Are Global Mediators Of Structural Stability And Allosteric Interactions, Kevin A. James, Gennady M. Verkhivker

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The ErbB protein tyrosine kinases are among the most important cell signaling families and mutation-induced modulation of their activity is associated with diverse functions in biological networks and human disease. We have combined molecular dynamics simulations of the ErbB kinases with the protein structure network modeling to characterize the reorganization of the residue interaction networks during conformational equilibrium changes in the normal and oncogenic forms. Structural stability and network analyses have identified local communities integrated around high centrality sites that correspond to the regulatory spine residues. This analysis has provided a quantitative insight to the mechanism of mutation-induced ‘‘superacceptor’’ activity …