Protein solubility is based on the compatibility of the specific protein surface with the polar aquatic environment. The exposure of polar residues to the protein surface promotes the protein’s solubility in the polar environment. The aquatic environment also influences the folding process by favoring the centralization of hydrophobic residues with the simultaneous exposure to polar residues. The degree of compatibility of the residue distribution, with the model of the concentration of hydrophobic residues in the center of the molecule, with the simultaneous exposure of polar residues is determined by the sequence of amino acids in the chain. The fuzzy oil drop model enables the quantification of the degree of compatibility of the hydrophobicity distribution observed in the protein to a form fully consistent with the Gaussian 3D function, which expresses an idealized distribution that meets the preferences of the polar water environment. The varied degrees of compatibility of the distribution observed with the idealized one allow the prediction of preferences to interactions with molecules of different polarity, including water molecules in particular. This paper analyzes a set of proteins with different levels of hydrophobicity distribution in the context of the solubility of a given protein and the possibility of complex formation.
Proteins with a high degree of sequence similarity representing different structures provide a key to understand how protein sequence codes for 3D structure. An analysis using the fuzzy oil drop model was carried out on two pairs of proteins with different secondary structures and with high sequence identities. It has been shown that distributions of hydrophobicity for these proteins are approximated well using single 3D Gaussian function. In other words, the similar sequences fold into different 3D structures, however, alternative structures also have symmetric and monocentric hydrophobic cores. It should be noted that a significant change in the helical to beta-structured form in the N-terminal section takes places in the fragment much preceding the location of the mutated regions. It can be concluded that the final structure is the result of a complicated synergy effect in which the whole chain participates simultaneously.
Protein structure is the result of the high synergy of all amino acids present in the protein. This synergy is the result of an overall strategy for adapting a specific protein structure. It is a compromise between two trends: The optimization of non-binding interactions and the directing of the folding process by an external force field, whose source is the water environment. The geometric parameters of the structural form of the polypeptide chain in the form of a local radius of curvature that is dependent on the orientation of adjacent peptide bond planes (result of the respective Phi and Psi rotation) allow for a comparative analysis of protein structures. Certain levels of their geometry are the criteria for comparison. In particular, they can be used to assess the differences between the structural form of biologically active proteins and their amyloid forms. On the other hand, the application of the fuzzy oil drop model allows the assessment of the role of amino acids in the construction of tertiary structure through their participation in the construction of a hydrophobic core. The combination of these two models—the geometric structure of the backbone and the determining of the participation in the construction of the tertiary structure that is applied for the comparative analysis of biologically active and amyloid forms—is presented.
The fuzzy oil drop model suggests that the tertiary conformation of a protein -particularly a globular one -can be likened to a spherical micelle. During the folding process, hydrophilic residues are exposed on the surface, while hydrophobic residues are retained inside the protein. The resulting hydrophobicity distribution can be mathematically modeled as a 3D Gaussian. The fuzzy oil drop model is strikingly effective in explaining the properties of type II antifreeze proteins and fast-folding proteins, as well as a vast majority of autonomous protein domains. This work aims to determine whether similar mechanisms apply to other types of nonbonding interactions. Our analysis indicates that electrostatic and van der Waals forces do not conform to the Gaussian pattern. The study involves a reference protein (titin) which shows a high agreement between the observed distribution of hydrophobicity and the theoretical (Gaussian) distribution, a selection of amyloid structures derived from the Protein Data Bank, as well as transthyretin -a protein known for its susceptibility to amyloid transformation.
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