title: Critical Fluctuations in the Native State of Proteins.
abstract: Based on protein structural ensembles determined by nuclear magnetic resonance, we study the position fluctuations of residues by calculating distance-dependent correlations and conducting finite-size scaling analysis. The fluctuations exhibit high susceptibility and long-range correlations up to the protein sizes. The scaling relations between the correlations or susceptibility and protein sizes resemble those in other physical and biological systems near their critical points. These results indicate that, at the native states, motions of each residue are felt by every other one in the protein. We also find that proteins with larger susceptibility are more frequently observed in nature. Overall, our results suggest that the protein's native state is critical.
authors.affiliation: National Lab of Solid State Microstructure, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Qian-Yuan
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: National Lab of Solid State Microstructure, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yang-Yang
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Lab of Solid State Microstructure, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: National Lab of Solid State Microstructure, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: CEMSC3, Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences, Escuela de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de San Martín & Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), 25 de Mayo y Francia, San Martín(1650), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Dante R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Chialvo
mesh_terms: D008958:Models, Molecular; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins