Folding/unfolding pathways

J. Skolnick and A. Kolinski, J. Mol. Biol., 212, 787 (1990). Dynamic Monte Carlo Simulations of Globular Protein Folding/Unfolding Pathways. I. Six-Member, Greek Key Beta-Barrel Proteins. 

Honeycutt and Thirumalai [20] demonstrated the existence of metastable states in the folding/unfolding pathways, using a stochastic dynamics method to simulate the processes of folding and unfolding. These metastable states are characterized by several free-energy minima... 

M. L. Demarco, D. O. V. Alonso, and V. Daggett,/. Mol. Biol, 341,1109 (2004). Diffusing and Colliding The Atomic Level Folding/Unfolding Pathway of a Small Helical Protein. 

During the forward folding pathway the newly synthesized chain forms a partially folded single chain intermediate (5435). This folds further to a species with sufficient structure for chain recognition. Three of these intermediates associate into a protrimer in which the chains are associated but not fully folded (36). This species then folds further to the thermostable detergent and protease resistant native trimer. There are no known covalent modifications in the process. A similar process occurs in refolding urea denatured chains in vitro (37). Thermal Unfolding Pathway of Tailspike... 

Thermal Unfolding Pathway Differs from the in vivo Folding Pathway... 

In any case, the difference between the in vivo folding pathway and the in vitro thermal unfolding pathway indicates the importance of kinetic aspects in controlling the folding and unfolding of this protein. 

Effects of Tailspike Mutations on Both Folding and Unfolding Pathways... 

---