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Topological complexity, contact order and protein folding rates

P. F. N. Faisca·R. C. Ball
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Abstract

Monte Carlo simulations of protein folding show the emergence of a strong correlation between the relative contact order parameter, CO, and the folding time, t, of two-state folding proteins for longer chains with number of amino acids, N>=54, and higher contact order, CO > 0.17. The correlation is particularly strong for N=80 corresponding to slow and more complex folding kinetics. These results are qualitatively compatible with experimental data where a general trend towards increasing t with CO is indeed observed in a set of proteins with chain length ranging from 41 to 154 amino acids.

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P. F. N. Faisca, R. C. Ball. 2002-05-29. Topological complexity, contact order and protein folding rates. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1511509

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