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Updated: May 8, 2026

High-Pressure NMR Experiments for Detecting Protein Low-Lying Conformational States
Published on: June 29, 2021
Effects of sequence and solvation on the temperature-pressure conformational landscape of proteinlike heteropolymers
1Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. matysiak@umd.edu
Abstract:
We study the role of sequence and solvation in shaping the temperature-pressure (T, P) conformational landscape of model heteropolymers with a coarse-grained model. We design foldable primarily hydrophobic sequences with fixed polar content in water at physiological conditions, which demonstrate (T, P) dependence of conformational stability similar to biological proteins. Inherent helicity emerges as a result of local polar-polar interactions in the sequences that mimic biological α helices. The helical propensity is reduced upon solvation and remains unaltered at cold T and high P, which is driven by the T-P induced changes of the hydration shell. Consequently, at nonphysiological conditions the weakening of hydrophobic interactions facilitates population of non-native, helical, compact conformations stabilized through direct nonlocal interactions between polar residues.
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