Local Interactions and Protein Folding : A ModelStudy

We study a simple heteropolymer model containing sequence-independent local interactions on both square and triangular lattices. Sticking to a two-letter code, we investigate the model for varying strength of the local interactions; = 0 corresponds to the well-known HP model K.F. Lau and K.A. Dill, Macromolecules 22, 3986 (1989)]. By exhaustive enumerations for short chains, we obtain all structures which act as a unique and pronounced energy minimum for at least one sequence. We nd that the number of such designable structures depends strongly on. Also, we nd that the number of designable structures can diier widely for the two lattices at a given. This is the case, for example, at = 0, which implies that the HP model exhibits diierent behavior on the two lattices. Our ndings clearly show that sequence-independent local properties of the chains can play an important role in the formation of unique minimum energy structures.