Self-consistent calculation of protein folding pathways

J Chem Phys. 2017 Aug 14;147(6):064108. doi: 10.1063/1.4997197.

Abstract

We introduce an iterative algorithm to efficiently simulate protein folding and other conformational transitions, using state-of-the-art all-atom force fields. Starting from the Langevin equation, we obtain a self-consistent stochastic equation of motion, which directly yields the reaction pathways. From the solution of this set of equations we derive a stochastic estimate of the reaction coordinate. We validate this approach against the results of plain MD simulations of the folding of a small protein, which were performed on the Anton supercomputer. In order to explore the computational efficiency of this algorithm, we apply it to generate a folding pathway of a protein that consists of 130 amino acids and has a folding rate of the order of s-1.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Protein Folding*
  • Proteins / chemistry*
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Proteins