Elastic energy of proteins and the stages of protein folding

Details Elastic energy of proteins and the stages of protein folding Elastic energy of proteins and the stages of protein folding

2010-02-26

arxiv.org/abs/1002.5024v1

Europhys Lett, 88 (2009), 68004

Physics

Condensed Matter

Statistical Mechanics

Scientific paper

We propose a universal elastic energy for proteins, which depends only on the radius of gyration $R_{g}$ and the residue number $N$. It is constructed using physical arguments based on the hydrophobic effect and hydrogen bonding. Adjustable parameters are fitted to data from the computer simulation of the folding of a set of proteins using the CSAW (conditioned self-avoiding walk) model. The elastic energy gives rise to scaling relations of the form $R_{g}\sim N^{\nu}$ in different regions. It shows three folding stages characterized by the progression with exponents $\nu = 3/5, 3/7, 2/5$, which we identify as the unfolded stage, pre-globule, and molten globule, respectively. The pre-globule goes over to the molten globule via a break in behavior akin to a first-order phase transition, which is initiated by a sudden acceleration of hydrogen bonding.

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