title: Hydrogen bonds in polymer folding.
abstract: We studied the thermodynamics of a homopolymeric chain with both van der Waals and directed hydrogen bond interaction. The effect of hydrogen bonds is to reduce dramatically the entropy of low-lying states and to give rise to long-range order and to conformations displaying secondary structures. For compact polymers a transition is found between helix-rich states and low-entropy sheet-dominated states. The consequences of this transition for protein folding and, in particular, for the problem of prions are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Niels Bohr Institute and Nordita, Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100, Denmark.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borg
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sneppen
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tiana
mesh_terms: D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D011506:Proteins