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Force Transduction and Lipid Binding in MscL: A Continuum-Molecular Approach

Figure 4

Estimating the strength of lipid binding.

(A) Fraction of unbound lipids as a function of time, , obtained by applying a radial pulling force (910 pN) on the lipid tails while restraining the protein atoms (to prevent the protein from unfolding, see Methods). Data are fitted to the function to obtain the rate of unbinding for each pulling force, . (B) Rates of unbinding are fitted to Eq. 1 to obtain the spontaneous dissociation time () and the distance between the equilibrium and the transition states ().

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113947.g004