How much is a stabilizing bond worth?
It is commonly supposed that the contribution of a bond to protein or nucleic acid stability is equal to the in situ stability of the bond itself. This is not true for the noncovalent bonds that stabilize molecular folding. In general, a bonding interaction contributes a free energy increment to protein or nucleic acid stability that is larger, an enthalpy increment that is smaller, and entropy and heat capacity increments that are more positive than the corresponding bond parameter.
Sharp
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Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6059.
Englander
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D004355:Drug Stability; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D017510:Protein Folding; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
D009696:Nucleic Acids; D011506:Proteins