Mechanical Deformation and Electronic Structure of a Blue Copper Azurin in a Solid-State Junction.
Biomolecules
; 9(9)2019 09 19.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31546917
Protein-based electronics is an emerging field which has attracted considerable attention over the past decade. Here, we present a theoretical study of the formation and electronic structure of a metal-protein-metal junction based on the blue-copper azurin from pseudomonas aeruginosa. We focus on the case in which the protein is adsorbed on a gold surface and is contacted, at the opposite side, to an STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscopy) tip by spontaneous attachment. This has been simulated through a combination of molecular dynamics and density functional theory. We find that the attachment to the tip induces structural changes in the protein which, however, do not affect the overall electronic properties of the protein. Indeed, only changes in certain residues are observed, whereas the electronic structure of the Cu-centered complex remains unaltered, as does the total density of states of the whole protein.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
/
Azurina
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Biomolecules
Año:
2019
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
España
Pais de publicación:
Suiza