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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 80 » Issue 16
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 3654–3657 (1998)

Master Equation Approach to Protein Folding and Kinetic Traps

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Marek Cieplak1, Malte Henkel2, Jan Karbowski3, and Jayanth R. Banavar4
1Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland
2Laboratoire de Physique des Matériaux, Université Henri Poincaré Nancy I, F-54506 Vandœuvre, France
3Center for Polymer Studies, Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
4Department of Physics and Center for Materials Physics, 104 Davey Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

Received 22 December 1997; published in the issue dated 20 April 1998

The master equation for 12-monomer lattice heteropolymers is solved numerically and the time evolution of the occupancy of the native state is determined. At low temperatures, the median folding time follows the Arrhenius law and is governed by the longest relaxation time. For good folders significant kinetic traps appear in the folding funnel, whereas for bad folders the traps also occur in non-native energy valleys.

© 1998 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.3654
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.3654
PACS:
87.15.By, 87.10.+e
 
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