Linguistic analysis of protein folding.
Folding of nascent chains resembles the decoding of spoken language in that information is emitted as a unidirectional, one-dimensional string of elements, with higher structures and long-distance interactions emerging with time. Applying a "pseudolinguistic' analysis of structure to a set of all 36 possible six-stranded antiparallel beta-sandwich topologies reveals new order principles and reduces the complexity of this family significantly. The simple connectivity diagrams ("linguistic trees') proposed here allow predictions of the speed and cooperativity of beta-sheet folding and help understanding the cotranslational folding from the N-terminus.
Gross
M
M
Oxford Centre for Molecular Sciences, New Chemistry Laboratory, UK. mgross@bioch.ox.ac.uk
D007700:Kinetics; D008037:Linguistics; D017510:Protein Folding; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
D011506:Proteins