Motional heterogeneity in human acetylcholinesterase revealed by a non-Gaussian model for elastic incoherent neutron scattering

We study the dynamical transition of human acetylcholinesterase by analyzing elastic neutron scattering data with a simulation gauged analytical model that goes beyond the standard Gaussian approximation for the elastic incoherent structure factor [G. R. Kneller and K. Hinsen, J. Chem. Phys. 131, 045104 (2009)]. The model exploits the whole available momentum transfer range in the experimental data and yields not only a neutron-weighted average of the atomic mean square position fluctuations, but also an estimation for their distribution. Applied to the neutron scattering data from human acetylcholinesterase, it reveals a strong increase of the motional heterogeneity at the two transition temperatures T = 150K and T = 220 K, respectively, which can be located with less ambiguity than with the Gaussian model. We find that the first transition is essentially characterized by a change in the form of the elastic scattering profile and the second by a homogeneous increase of all motional amplitudes. These results are in agreement with previous combined experimental and simulation studies of protein dynamics, which attribute the first transition to an onset of methyl rotations and the second to more unspecific diffusion processes involving large amplitude motions. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.