Folding and unfolding of chicken villin headpiece: Energy landscape of a single-domain model protein

Srinivas, G and Bagchi, B (2002) Folding and unfolding of chicken villin headpiece: Energy landscape of a single-domain model protein. In: Current Science, 82 (2). pp. 179-185.

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Abstract

Folding and unfolding of a thermostable chicken villin headpiece subdomain, a 36-residue protein (HP-36), is studied by using Brownian dynamics simulations. The hydropathy scale of amino acids is used to obtain the varying interactions among the amino acids. A qualitative picture of the energy landscape funnel is obtained from simulations. Although there are several states near the minimum of the folding funnel, we could identify a stable native configuration. The energy of the folded protein scales with the hydrophobic contact parameter, as found in recent analyses. The model also allows for a description of cold denaturation by the salt-induced modification of the 'effective' interactions among the various amino acids. In this model, the kinetics of denaturation is found to be considerably different from that of folding-folding, seems to face more barriers and involves a more complex pathway.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	02 Jun 2006
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:28
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/id/eprint/7468

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