Normal Mode Analysis of Proteins: the Elastic Network Model and Beyond

Marc Delarue
CNRS, France/ Institut Pasteur
Structural Biology and Chemistry

The Elastic Network Model (ENM) will be presented. Normal Mode Analysis (NMA) explains most of the known transitions of proteins using just a handful of the lowest-frequency normal modes derived with the ENM. NMA can used to enforce collective and large-amplitude movements in the refinement of macromolecular models into experimental electron density maps or crystallographic diffraction data. Furthermore, NMA can be used to improve structural alignments. Simple ideas derived from ENM can help to simulate quickly and in a plausible way the transition between two forms of the same macromolecules.