Importance of Metastable States in the Free Energy Landscapes of Polypeptide Chains

Autor: Auer, Stefan, Miller, Mark A., Krivov, Sergei V., Dobson, Christopher M., Karplus, Martin, Vendruscolo, Michele
Rok vydání: 2007
Předmět:
Zdroj: Physical Review Letters, 99 178104 (2007)
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.178104
Popis: We show that the interplay between excluded volume effects, hydrophobicity, and hydrogen bonding of a tube-like representation of a polypeptide chain gives rise to free energy landscapes that exhibit a small number of metastable minima corresponding to common structural motifs observed in proteins. The complexity of the landscape increases only moderately with the length of the chain. Analysis of the temperature dependence of these landscapes reveals that the stability of specific metastable states is maximal at a temperature close to the mid-point of folding. These mestastable states are therefore likely to be of particular significance in determining the generic tendency of proteins to aggregate into potentially pathogenic agents.
Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures
Databáze: arXiv