1 70 points Protein Folding a What is the protein folding pr

(1) (70 points) Protein Folding (a) What is the protein folding problem? (b) Why is protein folding an important problem? (c) What is the energy landscape theory in protein folding? (d) Consider a two-state folder in a stop-flow experiment. Changing urea concentration [Urea], the rate of change of the unfolded protein fraction dU/dt 3-kfU+ kuN, whereas the rate of change of the folded protein fraction dN/dt kfU kuN. The experiment measures the overall signal associated to the state of the system as a function of time. Show that the decay towards equilibrium is governed by the rate ku ku, whereas the equilibrium state is given by kf/ku.

Solution

a) The protein folding problem is the question of how a protein’s amino acid sequence dictates its three-dimensional atomic structure. It is regarded as three different problems:

(a) the folding code: Information about the balance of interatomic forces which are responsible for structure of the protein for the specific aminoacids

(b) protein structure prediction: Predicting the protein native structure from its amino acid sequence by computational analysis

(c) the folding process: The pathways use to fold so quickly

B)Protein folding is a problem because prediction the 3D structure of the protein using computational programme is difficult task.

C) The statistical description of the potential surface of the protein is the energy landscape theory of protein folding The theory assumes that folding occurs by organizing an ensemble of structures and not due to uniquely defined structural intermediates.

It is the most realistic model