Potential of mean force calculation of the free energy of adsorption of Type I winter flounder antifreeze protein on ice

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are a unique class of proteins that inhibit ice growth without changing the melting point of ice. In this work, we study the detailed molecular mechanism of interactions between the hydrophobic side of the winter flounder (WF) AFP and two mutants, AAAA and SSSS, in which threonine residues are substituted by serines and alanines, respectively. Umbrella sampling molecular dynamics simulations of the separation of the proteins from the (2 0 1) surface in an explicit water box is carried out to calculate the potential of mean force free energies of adsorption using AMBER10i. We estimate wild-type WF's free energy of adsorption to ice to be about −12.0 kcal/mol. Gas-phase pseudopotential plane-wave calculations of methane adsorption onto select surfaces of ice are also carried out under periodic boundary conditions to address the possible enthalpic role of WF's methyl groups in binding. The contributions of hydrophobic residues to the free energy of adsorption are discussed.