English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

We investigate the impact of water fluctuations on the key-lock association kinetics of a hydrophobic ligand (key) binding to a hydrophobic pocket (lock) by means of a minimalistic stochastic model system. The latter describes the collective hydration behavior of the pocket by bimodal fluctuations of the water-pocket interface that dynamically couples to the diffusive motion of the approaching ligand via the hydrophobic interaction. This leads to a Markovian set of overdamped stochastic equations in 2D-coordinate-space spanned by the interface position and the ligand position. Numerical simulations demonstrate locally increased friction of the ligand, decelerated binding kinetics, and local non-Markovian (memory) effects in a reduced 1D-description along the ligand's reaction (distance) coordinate as found previously in explicit-water simulations. Our minimalistic model elucidates the origin of locally enhanced friction that can be traced back to long-time decays in the force-autocorrelation function induced by a spatially fluctuating interface-ligand interaction. Furthermore, we construct a generalized 1D-Langevin description of ligand binding including a spatially local memory function that reflects the dominant frequencies of the pocket wetting/dewetting process, enabling further interpretation and a semianalytical quantification of our results.

Solvent Fluctuations Induce Non-Markovian Kinetics in Hydrophobic Pocket-Ligand Binding