title: The concept of a random coil. Residual structure in peptides and denatured proteins.
abstract: Non-native states of proteins are of increasing interest because of their relevance to issues such as protein folding, translocation and stability. A framework for interpreting the wealth of experimental data for non-native states emerging from rapid advances in experimental techniques involves comparison with a "random coll' state, which possesses no structure except that inherent in the local interactions. We review here the concept of a random coil, from its global to its local properties. In particular, we focus on the description of a random coil in terms of statistical distributions in psi, phi space. We show that such a model, in combination with experimental data, provides insight into the structural properties of polypeptide chains and has significance for understanding protein folding and for molecular design.
authors.affiliation: Oxford Centre for Molecular Sciences and New Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Fiebig
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schwalbe
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Dobson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D017510:Protein Folding; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins