Tensorial elastic network model for protein dynamics: Integration of the anisotropic network model with bond-bending and twist elasticities

We present a tensorial elastic network model (TNM) to describe the equilibrium fluctuations of proteins near their native fold structure. The model combines the anisotropic network model (ANM), bond bending elasticity, and backbone twist elasticity, and can predict both the isotropic fluctuations, similar to the Gaussian network model (GNM), and anisotropic fluctuations, similar to the ANM. TNM performs equally well for B-factor predictions as GNM and predicts the anisotropy of B-factors better than ANM. The model also outperforms the ANM in its predictability of the complete anisotropic displacement parameters.