Directed transport as a mechanism for protein folding in vivo

摘要

We propose a model for protein folding in vivo based on a Brownian-ratchetmechanism in the multidimensional energy landscape space. The device is able toproduce directed transport taking advantage of the assumed intrinsic asymmetricproperties of the proteins and employing the consumption of energy provided byan external source. Through such a directed transport phenomenon, thepolypeptide finds the native state starting from any initial state in theenergy landscape with great efficacy and robustness, even in the presence ofdifferent type of obstacles. This model solves Levinthal's paradox withoutrequiring biased transition probabilities but at the expense of opening thesystem to an external field.