6533b834fe1ef96bd129cc82
RESEARCH PRODUCT
All-or-none proteinlike folding transition of a flexible homopolymer chain.
Kurt BinderWolfgang PaulMark P. Taylorsubject
Folding (chemistry)chemistry.chemical_classificationQuantitative Biology::BiomoleculesMaterials scienceChain (algebraic topology)chemistryDensity of statesThermodynamicsProtein foldingDistinctive featureCrystallitePolymerType (model theory)description
Here we report a first-order all-or-none transition from an expanded coil to a compact crystallite for a flexible polymer chain. Wang-Landau sampling is used to construct the complete density of states for square-well chains up to length 256. Analysis within both the microcanonical and canonical ensembles shows a direct freezing transition for finite length chains with sufficiently short-range interactions. This type of transition is a distinctive feature of "one-step" protein folding and our findings demonstrate that a simple homopolymer model can exhibit protein-folding thermodynamics.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-05-07 | Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics |