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A Gibbs free energy formula for protein folding derived from quantum statistics

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Abstract

The fundamental law for protein folding is the thermodynamic principle. The amino acid sequence of a protein determines its native structure and the native structure has the minimum Gibbs free energy. Lacking of a Gibbs free energy formula is the reason that all ab initio protein structure prediction only empirical and various empirical energy surfaces or landscapes are introduced to fill the gap. We make a quantum mechanics derivation of the Gibbs free energy formula G(X) using quantum statistics for a single conformation X. For simplicity, only monomeric self folding globular proteins are considered.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China

    Yi Fang

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  1. Yi Fang
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Correspondence to Yi Fang.

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Fang, Y. A Gibbs free energy formula for protein folding derived from quantum statistics. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 57, 1547–1551 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-013-5288-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-013-5288-x

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