title: Finite size effects on thermal denaturation of globular proteins.
abstract: Finite size effects on the cooperative thermal denaturation of proteins are considered. A dimensionless measure of cooperativity, Omegac, scales as Nzeta, where N is the number of amino acids. Surprisingly, we find that zeta is universal with zeta=1+gamma, where the exponent gamma characterizes the divergence of the susceptibility for a self-avoiding walk. Our lattice model simulations and experimental data are consistent with the theory. Our finding rationalizes the marginal stability of proteins and substantiates the earlier predictions that the efficient folding of two-state proteins requires TF approximately Ttheta, where Ttheta and TF are the collapse and folding transition temperatures, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Mai Suan
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dmitri K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Klimov
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thirumalai
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D044367:Phase Transition; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D017510:Protein Folding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins