Hydrodynamic selection of the kinetic pathway of a polymer coil-globule transition

Recently, the role of hydrodynamic interactions in the selection of a kinetic pathway for phase transitions has attracted considerable attention. Here we study this problem numerically by taking as an example a coil-globule transition of a single polymer, which is a prototype model of protein foldin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2009-03, Vol.102 (10), p.108303-108303, Article 108303
Main Authors: Kamata, Kumiko, Araki, Takeaki, Tanaka, Hajime
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Kinetics
Models, Chemical
Models, Molecular
Polymers - chemistry
Protein Folding
Proteins - chemistry
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Recently, the role of hydrodynamic interactions in the selection of a kinetic pathway for phase transitions has attracted considerable attention. Here we study this problem numerically by taking as an example a coil-globule transition of a single polymer, which is a prototype model of protein folding. When a swollen polymer collapses into a globule state, hydrodynamic interactions accelerate the transition. We find, on the other hand, that when a rather compact polymer collapses into the same final state, hydrodynamic interactions decelerate the transition due to a slow squeezing process of the solvent. We reveal that the degree of the initial enhancement of anisotropy of the polymer configuration determines whether hydrodynamic interactions accelerate or decelerate the collapsing dynamics. We also discuss the possible relevance of squeezing flow effects in protein folding.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.102.108303