Fig. 3: Residue Contacts between Y2R NT and NPY.

a Flare plot showing the contact frequency between residues of Y2R NT and NPY from microsecond MD simulations. Contacts are defined as residues within a distance of 4.5 Å (excluding direct neighbors) and are represented by black lines. Line opacity indicates contact frequencies, with higher opacity reflecting more frequent contacts. The acidic patches E15-E20 and D35-E39 of the NT are highlighted. b Visualization of overall contact frequency between residues of NPY and Y2R NT. Contact frequencies are shown by red hue intensity, with higher frequencies indicated by darker shades. Residues with high contact frequencies are labeled for clarity. c Distance plots for selected residue pairs M17Y2R-R25NPY, D35Y2R-R25NPY, and L40Y2R-R19NPY. Different colors represent different simulation runs. Runs were smoothed by averaging over ten frames per point. The original, unsmoothed time trace is shown in the same color with higher transparency. Corresponding structural snapshots at 0.2 µs are shown below the plots using the same color scheme.