Entropy, Volume 20, Issue 8
August 2018 - 78 articles
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Cover Story: We apply Popcoen to various conformations of the Cas4 protein SSO0001 of Sulfolobus solfataricus, a protein that assembles to a decamer of known toroidal shape. We provide numerical evidence that the native state (NAT) of a SSO0001 monomer has a similar structure to the protomers of the oligomer, where NAT of the monomer is stabilized mainly entropically. Due to its large amount of configurational entropy, NAT has lower free energy than alternative conformations of very low enthalpy and solvation free-energy. Hence, SSO0001 serves as an example case where neglecting configurational entropy leads to incorrect conclusion. Our results imply that no refolding of the subunits is required during oligomerization which suggests that configurational entropy is employed by nature to largely enhance the rate of assembly. View this paper