Phase Diagram of alpha-Helical and beta-Sheet Forming Peptides
Biomolecules
2010-06-08 v1 Soft Condensed Matter
Abstract
The intrinsic property of proteins to form structural motifs such as alpha-helices and beta-sheets leads to a complex phase behavior in which proteins can assemble into various types of aggregates including crystals, liquidlike phases of unfolded or natively folded proteins, and amyloid fibrils. Here we use a coarse-grained protein model that enables us to perform Monte Carlo simulations for determining the phase diagram of natively folded alpha-helical and unfolded beta-sheet forming peptides. The simulations reveal the existence of various metastable peptide phases. The liquidlike phases are metastable with respect to the fibrillar phases, and there is a hierarchy of metastability.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1006.1212,
title = {Phase Diagram of alpha-Helical and beta-Sheet Forming Peptides},
author = {Stefan Auer and Dimo Kashchiev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.1212},
year = {2010}
}