Figure 5.

(a) SASA of αVBS shows a sharp increase between 400 and 600 ps, which corresponds to the second stage of the activation process. It shows that αVBS is released after the key hydrophobic interactions are distorted. The last part of the graph is related to the third stage of the activation process in which a few salt bridges are broken. No significant increase in the SASA value is displayed at this stage implying that these salt bridges do not have a major effect on stabilizing αVBS because they are located only at the N-terminus of αVBS. (b) The number of hydrogen bonds with αVBS continuously decreases over time showing that hydrogen bonds are important in stabilizing αVBS in the rod domain.