Levinthal's paradox.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 1729690.
- Also identified by PMC identifier 48166.
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Abstract
Levinthal's paradox is that finding the native folded state of a protein by a random search among all possible configurations can take an enormously long time. Yet proteins can fold in seconds or less. Mathematical analysis of a simple model shows that a small and physically reasonable energy bias against locally unfavorable configurations, of the order of a few kT, can reduce Levinthal's time to a biologically significant size.
Medical subject headings
- Protein Conformation
- Proteins