Hydrophobicity and Unique Folding of Selected Polymers

TL;DR

This paper introduces lattice models for foldable heteropolymers based on monomer properties like solvent exposure and steric factors, providing insights into their unique folding behaviors.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to modeling heteropolymer folding using monomer-specific properties, simplifying the understanding of polymer conformations.

Findings

Models demonstrate that monomer properties can predict folding conformations.

The approach simplifies the analysis of polymer folding mechanisms.

Potential applications in designing synthetic polymers with desired structures.

Abstract

In suitable environments, proteins, nucleic acids and certain synthetic polymers fold into unique conformations. This work shows that it is possible to construct lattice models of foldable heteropolymers by expressing the energy only in terms of individual properties of monomers, such as the exposure to the solvent and the steric factor.