Diffusion dynamics, moments, and distribution of first-passage time on the protein-folding energy landscape, with applications to single molecules

摘要

We study the dynamics of protein folding via statistical energy-landscapetheory. In particular, we concentrate on the local-connectivity case with thefolding progress described by the fraction of native conformations. We obtaininformation for the first passage-time (FPT) distribution and its moments. Theresults show a dynamic transition temperature below which the FPT distributiondevelops a power-law tail, a signature of the intermittency phenomena of thefolding dynamics. We also discuss the possible application of the results tosingle-molecule dynamics experiments.