Probing protein mechanics: residue-level properties and their use in defining domains.

ABSTRACT: It is becoming clear that, in addition to structural properties, the mechanical properties of proteins can play an important role in their biological activity. It nevertheless remains difficult to probe these properties experimentally. Whereas single-molecule experiments give access to overall mechanical behavior, notably the impact of end-to-end stretching, it is currently impossible to directly obtain data on more local properties. We propose a theoretical method for probing the mechanical properties of protein structures at the single-amino acid level. This approach can be applied to both all-atom and simplified protein representations. The probing leads to force constants for local deformations and to deformation vectors indicating the paths of least mechanical resistance. It also reve

SUBMITTER: Navizet I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1304551 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature