Folding nuclei in proteins

FEBS Letters

Galzitskaya, Oxana V¹  Finkelstein, Alexei V¹  Ivankov, Dmitry N¹ 

[1] Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290 Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia

关键词: Protein folding;    Folding intermediate;    All-or-none transition;    Two-state kinetics;    Folding nucleus;    Transition state;    Rate of folding;    3D;    three-dimensional;    TS;    transition state;   

DOI  :  10.1016/S0014-5793(01)02092-0

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

When a protein folds or unfolds, it passes through many half-folded microstates. Only a few of them can accumulate and be seen experimentally, and this happens only when the folding (or unfolding) occurs far from the point of thermodynamic equilibrium between the native and denatured states. The universal features of folding, though, are observed just close to the equilibrium point. Here the ‘two-state’ transition proceeds without any accumulation of metastable intermediates, and only the transition state (‘folding nucleus’) is outlined by its key influence on the folding–unfolding kinetics. Our aim is to review recent experimental and theoretical studies of the folding nuclei.

【 授权许可】

Unknown