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Updated: Oct 19, 2025

Investigating Protein Sequence-structure-dynamics Relationships with Bio3D-web
Published on: July 16, 2017
An "Onion-like" Model of Protein Unfolding: Collective versus Site Specific Approaches
Anastasia S Politou1,2, Annalisa Pastore3, Piero Andrea Temussi3
1Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina.
Abstract:
Approximating protein unfolding by an all-or-none cooperative event is a convenient assumption that can provide precious global information on protein stability. It is however quickly emerging that the scenario is far more complex and that global denaturation curves often hide a rich heterogeneity of states that are largely probe dependent. In this review, we revisit the importance of gaining site-specific information on the unfolding process. We focus on nuclear magnetic resonance, as this is the main technique able to provide site-specific information. We review historical and most modern approaches that have allowed an appreciable advancement of the field of protein folding. We also demonstrate how unfolding is a reporter dependent event, suggesting the outmost importance of selecting the reporter carefully.
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