Intermediates in the Protein Folding Process: A Computational Model
نویسندگان
چکیده
The paper presents a model for simulating the protein folding process in silico. The two-step model (which consists of the early stage-ES and the late stage-LS) is verified using two proteins, one of which is treated (according to experimental observations) as the early stage and the second as an example of the LS step. The early stage is based solely on backbone structural preferences, while the LS model takes into account the water environment, treated as an external hydrophobic force field and represented by a 3D Gauss function. The characteristics of 1ZTR (the ES intermediate, as compared with 1ENH, which is the LS intermediate) confirm the link between the gradual disappearance of ES characteristics in LS structural forms and the simultaneous emergence of LS properties in the 1ENH protein. Positive verification of ES and LS characteristics in these two proteins (1ZTR and 1ENH respectively) suggest potential applicability of the presented model to in silico protein folding simulations.
منابع مشابه
Structural Characteristics of Stable Folding Intermediates of Yeast Iso-1-Cytochrome-c
Cytochrome-c (cyt-c) is an electron transport protein, and it is present throughout the evolution. More than 280 sequences have been reported in the protein sequence database (www.uniprot.org). Though sequentially diverse, cyt-c has essentially retained its tertiary structure or fold. Thus a vast data set of varied sequences with retention of similar structure and fun...
متن کاملThe nature of protein folding pathways: the classical versus the new view.
Pulsed hydrogen exchange and other studies of the kinetic refolding pathways of several small proteins have established that folding intermediates with native-like secondary structures are well populated, but these studies have also shown that the folding kinetics are not well synchronized. Older studies of the kinetics of formation of the native protein, monitored by optical probes, indicate t...
متن کاملUniversality and diversity of the protein folding scenarios: a comprehensive analysis with the aid of a lattice model.
BACKGROUND The role of intermediates in protein folding has been a matter of great controversy. Although it was widely believed that intermediates play a key role in minimizing the search problem associated with the Levinthal paradox, experimental evidence has been accumulating that small proteins fold fast without any detectable intermediates. RESULTS We study the thermodynamics and kinetics...
متن کاملFolding and unfolding of gammaTIM monomers and dimers.
Kinetic simulations of the folding and unfolding of triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) from yeast were conducted using a single monomer gammaTIM polypeptide chain that folds as a monomer and two gammaTIM chains that fold to the native dimer structure. The basic protein model used was a minimalist Gō model using the native structure to determine attractive energies in the protein chain. For each si...
متن کاملIs protein folding hierarchic? II. Folding intermediates and transition states.
The folding reactions of some small proteins show clear evidence of a hierarchic process, whereas others, lacking detectable intermediates, do not. Evidence from folding intermediates and transition states suggests that folding begins locally, and that the formation of native secondary structure precedes the formation of tertiary interactions, not the reverse. Some notable examples in the liter...
متن کاملProtein Stability, Folding, Disaggregation and Etiology of Conformational Malfunctions
Estimation of protein stability is important for many reasons: first providing an understanding of the basic thermodynamics of the process of folding, protein engineering, and protein stability plays important role in biotechnology especially in food and protein drug design. Today, proteins are used in many branches, including industrial processes, pharmaceutical industry, and medical fields. A...
متن کامل