English

Distribution of the second virial coefficients of globular proteins

Soft Condensed Matter 2009-11-07 v1 Biomolecules

Abstract

George and Wilson [Acta. Cryst. D 50, 361 (1994)] looked at the distribution of values of the second virial coefficient of globular proteins, under the conditions at which they crystallise. They found the values to lie within a fairly narrow range. We have defined a simple model of a generic globular protein. We then generate a set of proteins by picking values for the parameters of the model from a probability distribution. At fixed solubility, this set of proteins is found to have values of the second virial coefficient that fall within a fairly narrow range. The shape of the probability distribution of the second virial coefficient is Gaussian because the second virial coefficient is a sum of contributions from different patches on the protein surface.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0207293,
  title  = {Distribution of the second virial coefficients of globular proteins},
  author = {Richard P. Sear},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0207293},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 pages, including 3 figures