Biophys J, August 2001, p. 710-714, Vol. 81, No. 2

Heat Capacity of Protein Folding

Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway

We construct a Hamiltonian for a single domain protein where the contact enthalpy and the chain entropy decrease linearly with the number of native contacts. The hydration effect upon protein unfolding is included by modeling water as ideal dipoles that are ordered around the unfolded surfaces, where the influence of these surfaces, covered with an "ice-like" shell of water, is represented by an effective field that directs the water dipoles. An intermolecular pair interaction between water molecules is also introduced. The heat capacity of the model exhibits, the common feature of small globular proteins, two peaks corresponding to cold and warm unfolding, respectively. By introducing ad hoc vibrational modes, we obtain quantitatively good accordance with experiments on myoglobin.

Biophys J, August 2001, p. 710-714, Vol. 81, No. 2
© 2001 by the Biophysical Society   0006-3495/01/08/710/05  $2.00

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