title: Understanding the determinants of stability and folding of small globular proteins from their energetics.
abstract: The results of minimal model calculations indicate that the stability and the kinetic accessibility of the native state of small globular proteins are controlled by few "hot" sites. By means of molecular dynamics simulations around the native conformation, which describe the protein and the surrounding solvent at the all-atom level, an accurate and compact energetic map of the native state of the protein is generated. This map is further simplified by means of an eigenvalue decomposition. The components of the eigenvector associated with the lowest eigenvalue indicate which hot sites are likely to be responsible for the stability and for the rapid folding of the protein. The comparison of the results of the model with the findings of mutagenesis experiments performed for four small proteins show that the eigenvalue decomposition method is able to identify between 60% and 80% of these (hot) sites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tiana
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Simona
authors.forename: Giacomo M S
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: De Mori
authors.forename: Ricardo A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Broglia
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Colombo
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D010940:Plant Proteins; D017354:Point Mutation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013049:Spectrin; D013816:Thermodynamics; D018909:src Homology Domains
chemical_list: C029152:G-substrate; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D010940:Plant Proteins; D011506:Proteins; C093336:chymotrypsin inhibitor 2; D013049:Spectrin