Membranes (Dec 2021)

Dependence of Protein Structure on Environment: FOD Model Applied to Membrane Proteins

  • Irena Roterman,
  • Katarzyna Stapor,
  • Krzysztof Gądek,
  • Tomasz Gubała,
  • Piotr Nowakowski,
  • Piotr Fabian,
  • Leszek Konieczny

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12010050
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
p. 50

Abstract

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The natural environment of proteins is the polar aquatic environment and the hydrophobic (amphipathic) environment of the membrane. The fuzzy oil drop model (FOD) used to characterize water-soluble proteins, as well as its modified version FOD-M, enables a mathematical description of the presence and influence of diverse environments on protein structure. The present work characterized the structures of membrane proteins, including those that act as channels, and a water-soluble protein for contrast. The purpose of the analysis was to verify the possibility that an external force field can be used in the simulation of the protein-folding process, taking into account the diverse nature of the environment that guarantees a structure showing biological activity.

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