Prediction of membrane protein structures and TM interactions Rosetta and molecular dynamic studies

The structures of membrane domains of the Divisome proteins and BlaR are not known and there is no homolog proteins of known structure to build homolgy models. Although the structure prediction of membrane proteins seems easier than for globular proteins, their ab initio prediction remains a difficult task. Only few methods have been used and validated on experimental pdb structures. By using the MARTINI or Bond coarse grain representation, the multimerization of transmembrane helices has been carried out by molecular dynamics, and the structure of several membrane proteins has been predicted by a tool of the Rosetta package. These methods are used here to predict the structure of the membrane embedded part of the politopic proteins from the divisome (FtsW, FtsK, FtsX and MraY) and BlaR. In a following part the MARTINI force field can be used to predict the TM helices interactions between the Divisome protein members.