The recognition and binding of proteins through the "fly-casting" mechanism are important biological processes. In this paper, a physical model for fly-casting binding is described based on the capillarity t...The recognition and binding of proteins through the "fly-casting" mechanism are important biological processes. In this paper, a physical model for fly-casting binding is described based on the capillarity theory for protein chains. It is found that the capture radius for the fly-casting binding process is maximized at the transition temperature at which the free energy of the monomeric extended state of the protein equals that of the folded state. The factors related to the folding barrier or binding affinity do not change the condition needed to realize the optimization for fly-casting processes. These results will aid in the comprehensive understanding of binding processes.展开更多
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No.2007CB814806)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.10974088,10834002 and 10774069)the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No.BK2009008)
文摘The recognition and binding of proteins through the "fly-casting" mechanism are important biological processes. In this paper, a physical model for fly-casting binding is described based on the capillarity theory for protein chains. It is found that the capture radius for the fly-casting binding process is maximized at the transition temperature at which the free energy of the monomeric extended state of the protein equals that of the folded state. The factors related to the folding barrier or binding affinity do not change the condition needed to realize the optimization for fly-casting processes. These results will aid in the comprehensive understanding of binding processes.
