The folding of proteins in a living cell is affected by all the other species present in the cell which can get in the way. Hence studying protein folding in solution does not give a full picture of what really happens in cells.
Raymond Kapral and Carlos Echeverriaab working at the University of Toronto and the Universidad de Los Andes used computer simulations to understand the effects of crowding on the folding of the adenylate kinase protein.
They found that when there were a lot of obstacles present along with the protein it was more likely to be in a closed confirmation, and interestingly that small obstacles could interact with the protein so that it was locked in an open confirmation.
The authors suggest that their method could be extended to provide further information on protein dynamics in more realistic models of crowded systems.
Read this HOT article today:
Molecular crowding and protein enzymatic dynamics
Carlos Echeverria and Raymond Kapral
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2CP40200A
