TALEs from a spring -- superelasticity of Tal effector protein   structures
  A simple force-probe setup is employed to study the mechanical properties of transcription activator-like effector (TALE) proteins in computer experiments. It is shown that their spring-like arrangement benefits superelastic behaviour which is manifested by large-scale global conformational changes along the helical axis, thus linking structure and dynamics in TALE proteins. As evidenced from the measured force-extension curves the dHax3 and PthXo1 TALEs behave like linear springs, obeying Hooke's law, for moderate global structural changes. For larger deformations, however, the proteins exhibit nonlinearities and the structures become stiffer the more they are stretched. Flexibility is not homogeneously distributed over TALE structure, but instead soft spots which correspond to the RVD loop residues and present key agents in the transmission of conformational motions are identified. 
Holger Flechsig
q-bio.BM cond-mat.soft physics.bio-ph