Hierarchical coupling between ATP hydrolysis and Hsp90's client binding site

Several indicators for a signal propagation from a binding site to a distant functional site have been found in the Hsp90 dimer. Here we determined a time-resolved pathway from ATP hydrolysis to changes in a distant folding substrate binding site. This was possible by combining single-molecule fluorescence-based methods with extensive atomistic nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We find that hydrolysis of one ATP effects a structural asymmetry in the full Hsp90 dimer that leads to the collapse of a central folding substrate binding site. Arg380 is the major mediator in transferring structural information from the nucleotide to the substrate binding site. This allosteric process occurs via hierarchical dynamics that involve timescales from pico- to milliseconds and length scales from Angstroms to several nanometers. We presume that similar hierarchical mechanisms are fundamental for information transfer through many other proteins