title: Exploring the stability of dimers through protein structure topology.
abstract: Protein homodimers pose some intriguing questions about the relation between structure and stability. We approached the problem by means of a topological methodology based on protein contact networks. We correlated local interface descriptors with structure and energy global properties of the systems under analysis. We demonstrated that the graph energy, formerly applied to the analysis of unconjugated hydrocarbons structures, is the bridge between the topological and energetic description of protein complexes. This is a first step for the generation of a "protein structural formula", analogous to the molecular graphs in organic chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Università CAMPUS BioMedico, Via A. del Portillo, 21, 00128, Italy. L.DiPaola@unicampus.it.
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Di Paola
authors.forename: Giampiero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.forename: Almerinda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Venere
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giuliani
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D030562:Databases, Protein; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D055550:Protein Stability; D021122:Protein Subunits; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D021122:Protein Subunits; D011506:Proteins