title: Protein folding pathways from replica exchange simulations and a kinetic network model.
abstract: We present an approach to the study of protein folding that uses the combined power of replica exchange simulations and a network model for the kinetics. We carry out replica exchange simulations to generate a large ( approximately 10(6)) set of states with an all-atom effective potential function and construct a kinetic model for folding, using an ansatz that allows kinetic transitions between states based on structural similarity. We use this network to perform random walks in the state space and examine the overall network structure. Results are presented for the C-terminal peptide from the B1 domain of protein G. The kinetics is two-state after small temperature perturbations. However, the coil-to-hairpin folding is dominated by pathways that visit metastable helical conformations. We propose possible mechanisms for the alpha-helix/beta-hairpin interconversion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and BIOMAPS Institute for Quantitative Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andrec
authors.forename: Anthony K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Felts
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gallicchio
authors.forename: Ronald M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Levy
mesh_terms: D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides