Packing helices in proteins by global optimization of a potential energy function.

Nanias, Marian; Chinchio, Maurizio; Pillardy, Jarosław; Ripoll, Daniel R; Scheraga, Harold A · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2003

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

An efficient method has been developed for packing alpha-helices in proteins. It treats alpha-helices as rigid bodies and uses a simplified Lennard-Jones potential with Miyazawa-Jernigan contact-energy parameters to describe the interactions between the alpha-helical elements in this coarse-grained system. Global conformational searches to generate packing arrangements rapidly are carried out with a Monte Carlo-with-minimization type of approach. The results for 42 proteins show that the approach reproduces native-like folds of alpha-helical proteins as low-energy local minima of this highly simplified potential function.

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