Fig. 3.

We turned on the cis-interactions between ligand-bound receptors to characterize the dynamic properties of receptor oligomerization after ligand binding. (a) The kinetic profiles of the simulation, including the number of trans-interactions (black curve), the number of cis-interactions (orange curve), and the size of the largest oligomer (blue curve) are plotted. The number of trans-interactions is further compared with a control system (red curve) in which the cis-interactions between ligand-bound receptors were turned off. (b) We show the initial configuration of the simulation. (c-d) Some representative snapshots along the simulation trajectory are also plotted. (e) The oligomer with the maximal size formed at the end of the simulation is highlighted. In the oligomer, ligand-receptor complexes are clustered as hexagonal lattice. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)