Related papers: Introduction to protein folding for physicists
A microscopic theory of the free energy barriers and folding routes for minimally frustrated proteins is presented, greatly expanding on the presentation of the variational approach outlined previously [J. J. Portman, S. Takada, P. G.…
Simple theoretical concepts and models have been helpful to understand the folding rates and routes of single-domain proteins. As reviewed in this article, a physical principle that appears to underly these models is loop closure.
We propose a protein model based on a hierarchy of constraints that force the protein to follow certain pathways when changing conformation. The model exhibits a first order phase transition, cooperativity and is exactly solvable. It also…
In the post-Moore era, the need for efficient solutions to non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP) problems is becoming more pressing. In this context, the Ising model implemented by the probabilistic computing systems with probabilistic…
Intricate comparison between two given tertiary structures of proteins is as important as the comparison of their functions. Several algorithms have been devised to compute the similarity and dissimilarity among protein structures. But,…
A protein is a linear chain containing a set of amino acids, which folds on itself to create a specific native structure, also called the minimum energy conformation. It is the native structure that determines the functionality of each…
Living cells are soft bodies of a characteristic form, but endowed with a capacity for a steady turnover of their structures. Both of these material properties, i.e. recovery of the shape after an external stress has been imposed and…
A new general algorithm for optimization of potential functions for protein folding is introduced. It is based upon gradient optimization of the thermodynamic stability of native folds of a training set of proteins with known structure. The…
Protein denaturing induced by supercooling is interpreted as a process where some or all internal symmetries of the native protein are spontaneously broken. Hence, the free-energy potential corresponding to a folding-funnel landscape…
In protein folding the term plasticity refers to the number of alternative folding pathways encountered in response to free energy perturbations such as those induced by mutation. Here we explore the relation between folding plasticity and…
Different aspects of protein folding are illustrated by simplified polymer models. Stressing the diversity of side chains (residues) leads one to view folding as the freezing transition of an heteropolymer. Technically, the most common…
Proteins are the most important biomolecules for living organisms. The understanding of protein structure, function, dynamics and transport is one of most challenging tasks in biological science. In the present work, persistent homology is,…
Along with recent progress in structural biology and genome biology, structural dynamics of molecular systems including nucleic acids has attracted attention in the context of gene regulation. Structure-function relationship is an important…
Natively unfolded proteins exist as an ensemble of flexible conformations lacking a well defined tertiary structure along a large portion of their polypeptide chain. Despite the absence of a stable configuration, they are involved in…
Protein Folding is concerned with the reasons and mechanism behind a protein's tertiary structure. The thermodynamic hypothesis of Anfinsen postulates an universal energy function (UEF) characterizing the tertiary structure, defined…
We use a three dimensional cubic lattice model of proteins to study their properties that determine folding to the native state. The protein chain is modeled as a sequence of $N$ beads. The interactions between beads are taken from a…
Crystallography may be the gold standard of protein structure determination, but obtaining the necessary high-quality crystals is also in some ways akin to prospecting for the precious metal. The tools and models developed in soft matter…
Determining the structure of a protein has been a decades-long open question. A protein's three-dimensional structure often poses nontrivial computation costs, when classical simulation algorithms are utilized. Advances in the transformer…
The Levinthal paradox exposes many critical questions on the protein folding problem, among which we could point out why proteins can reach their native state in a biologically reasonable time. A proper answer to this question is of…
We investigate the rate-length scaling law of protein folding, a key undetermined scaling law in the analytical theory of protein folding. We demonstrate that chain length is a dominant factor determining folding times, and that the…