Effects of macromolecular crowding on folding of small globular proteins

The effects of inert spherical crowders on the melting temperature and folding stability small globular proteins are investigated by using molecular dynamics simulations with a Gō-like model for proteins. energy parameter in is obtained individually each protein matching model’s to experimental meltingtemperature absence crowders. It shown that both increase presence Specifically, as crowders’ volume fraction φc increases from 0 0.4 more than 20 Kelvins, whereas enhanced up ∼3.6 kcal/mol depending temperature. At room (300 K), enhancement 1.2–1.4 kcal/mol, which close prior data. also dependence free change can be fitted well scaled particle theory assuming linear effective size unfolded state .