Related papers: Cold and Warm Denaturation of Proteins
We introduce a simplified protein model where the solvent (water) degrees of freedom appear explicitly (although in an extremely simplified fashion). Using this model we are able to recover the thermodynamic phenomenology of proteins over a…
The mechanisms of cold- and pressure-denaturation of proteins are matter of debate and are commonly understood as due to water-mediated interactions. Here we study several cases of proteins, with or without a unique native state, with or…
In a recent paper [PRL 91, 138103 (2003)] a new mechanism to explain the cold denaturation of proteins, based on the loss of local low-density water structure, has been proposed. In the present paper this mechanism is tested by means of…
Studying the properties of the solvent around proteins, we propose a much more sophisticated model of solvation than temperature-independent pairwise interactions between monomers, as is used commonly in lattice representations. We applied…
We study cold denaturation of proteins at high pressures. Using multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations of a model protein in a water bath, we investigate the effect of water density fluctuations on protein stability. We find that above the…
We present a statistical mechanics treatment of the stability of globular proteins which takes explicitly into account the coupling between the protein and water degrees of freedom. This allows us to describe both the cold and the warm…
Water plays a fundamental role in protein stability. However, the effect of the properties of water on the behaviour of proteins is only partially understood. Several theories have been proposed to give insight into the mechanisms of cold…
We introduce a polymer model where the transition from swollen to compact configurations is due to interactions between the monomers and the solvent. These interactions are the origin of the effective attractive interactions between…
We refine a protein model that reproduces fundamental aspects of protein thermodynamics. The model exhibits two transitions, hot and cold unfolding. The number of relevant parameters is reduced to three: 1) binding energy of folding…
Folding kinetics of a lattice model of protein is studied. It uses the Random Energy Model for the intrachain couplings and a temperature dependent free energy of solvation derived from a realistic hydration model of apolar solutes. The…
The hydrophobic effect stabilizes the native structure of proteins by minimizing the unfavourable interactions between hydrophobic residues and water through the formation of a hydrophobic core. Here we include the entropic and enthalpic…
The mechanism of cold- and pressure-denaturation are matter of debate. Some models propose that when denaturation occurs more hydrogen bonds between the molecules of hydration water are formed. Other models identify the cause in the density…
We explain the physical basis of a model for small globular proteins with water interactions. The water is supposed to access the protein interior in an "all-or-none" manner during the unfolding of the protein chain. As a consequence of…
Water is essential for the activity of proteins. However, the effect of the properties of water on the behavior of proteins is only partially understood. Recently, several experiments have investigated the relation between the dynamics of…
We review the background, theory and general equations for the analysis of equilibrium protein unfolding experiments, focusing on denaturant and heat-induced unfolding. The primary focus is on the thermodynamics of reversible…
We elucidate the mechanism of cold denaturation through constant-pressure simulations for a model of hydrophobic molecules in an explicit solvent. We find that the temperature dependence of the hydrophobic effect is the driving…
Thermal unfolding of proteins is compared to folding and mechanical stretching in a simple topology-based dynamical model. We define the unfolding time and demonstrate its low-temperature divergence. Below a characteristic temperature,…
Normal mode analysis is a widely used technique for reconstructing conformational changes of proteins from the knowledge of native structures. In this Letter, we investigate to what extent normal modes capture the salient features of the…
Prompted by results that showed that a simple protein model, the frustrated G\=o model, appears to exhibit a transition reminiscent of the protein dynamical transition, we examine the validity of this model to describe the low-temperature…
We construct a Hamiltonian for a single domain protein where the contact enthalpy and the chain entropy decrease linearly with the number of native contacts. The hydration effect upon protein unfolding is included by modeling water as ideal…