Predictions from an Ising-like Statistical Mechanical Model on the Dynamic and Thermodynamic Effects of Protein Surface Electrostatics

Charged residues on the surface of a protein are known hot-spots for post-translational modification, protein/ligand-binding, and tuning conformational stabilities. Recent experimental evidence points to the fact that surface electrostatics can also modulate thermodynamic barriers and hence folding mechanisms. To probe for this behavior across different proteins, we develop a novel version of the Wako-Saitô-Muñoz-Eaton (WSME) model in which we include an electrostatic potential term in the energy function while simplifying the treatment of solvation free energy. Both of the energy terms are obtained by quantitatively fitting the model to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiments that carry critical information on the protein partition function. We characterize four sets of structural/functional homologues (HEWL/BLA, CspB, engrailed, α-spectrin) either by fitting the experimental data of a single domain in the homologous set and predicting the conformational behavior of the rest with the same set of parameters or by performing semiblind predictions. The model with the added electrostatic term is able to successfully reproduce the order of thermodynamic stabilities and relaxation rates of most of the homologues. In parallel, we predict diverse conformational features including a wide range of thermodynamic barriers (∼9-40 kJ/mol), broad native ensembles in helical proteins, structured unfolded states and intermediates, rugged folding landscapes, and further provide an independent protein-specific estimate of the folding speed limit at 298 K (1/(7-300 μs)). Our results are evidence that protein surface electrostatics can be tailored to not only engineer stabilities but also folding mechanisms and the ruggedness of the underlying landscape.