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Determination of factors governing fibrillogenesis of polypeptide chains using lattice models

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 نشر من قبل Suan Li Mai
 تاريخ النشر 2010
  مجال البحث علم الأحياء
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Using lattice models we explore the factors that determine the tendencies of polypeptide chains to aggregate by exhaustively sampling the sequence and conformational space. The morphologies of the fibril-like structures and the time scales ($tau_{fib}$) for their formation depend on a subtle balance between hydrophobic and coulomb interactions. The extent of population of a fibril-prone structure in the spectrum of monomer conformations is the major determinant of $tau_{fib}$. This observation is used to determine the aggregation-prone consensus sequences by exhaustively exploring the sequence space. Our results provide a basis for genome wide search of fragments that are aggregation prone.

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Using lattice models we explore the factors that determine the tendencies of polypeptide chains to aggregate by exhaustively sampling the sequence and conformational space. The morphologies of the fibril-like structures and the time scales ($tau_{fib }$) for their formation depend on a balance between hydrophobic and coulomb interactions. The extent of population of an ensemble of textbf{N$^*$} structures, which are fibril-prone structures in the spectrum of conformations of an isolated protein, is the major determinant of $tau_{fib}$. This observation is used to determine the aggregating sequences by exhaustively exploring the sequence space, thus providing a basis for genome wide search of fragments that are aggregation prone.
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