Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Cooperativity in protein-folding kinetics

K A Dill1, K M Fiebig, H S Chan

  • 1Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco 94143-1204.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|March 1, 1993
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Driving forces in the origins of life.

Open biology·2021
Same author

Automated real-time detection of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis on a lab-on-a-disc by Recombinase Polymerase Amplification.

Analytical biochemistry·2018
Same author

Severity of airflow limitation, co-morbidities and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients acutely admitted to hospital.

Hong Kong medical journal = Xianggang yi xue za zhi·2013
Same author

Production and characterization of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against Aflatoxin B1 oxime-BSA in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Mycotoxin research·2013
Same author

Modeling stochastic dynamics in biochemical systems with feedback using maximum caliber.

The journal of physical chemistry. B·2011
Same author

Dynamical fluctuations in biochemical reactions and cycles.

Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics·2011
Same journal

In This Issue.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Long-term cultural continuity across the Neanderthal-modern human sequence at Üçağızlı II Cave, northern Levant.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Dolphins use names to remember whom to avoid.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Retraction for Shaked and Frenkel, Curiouser and curiouser: Meningeal lymphoid structures in the aging brain.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Small but mighty: The outsized role of small water bodies in the global carbon cycle.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Functional traits produce conditional outcomes in different community contexts.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
See all related articles

The hydrophobic zipper (HZ) hypothesis proposes proteins rapidly find their native state via sequential hydrophobic contacts. This mechanism explains protein folding pathways without exhaustive searching, forming compact intermediate states.

Area of Science:

  • Protein folding and biophysics
  • Computational biology and structural bioinformatics

Background:

  • Proteins must efficiently navigate vast conformational landscapes to reach their native state.
  • Existing models like helix-coil cooperativity do not fully explain the speed and efficiency of protein folding.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose and validate the hydrophobic zipper (HZ) hypothesis for protein folding.
  • To elucidate the role of nonlocal hydrophobic interactions in driving protein collapse and structure formation.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of hydrophobic contact topology in the 1992 Protein Data Bank.
  • Computational simulation of HZ pathways for crambin and bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor sequences.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Hydrophobic contacts exhibit 'topological localness' consistent with the HZ hypothesis.
  • HZ pathways were rapidly identified computationally for model protein sequences.
  • Simulated protein configurations achieved near-global minimum energy states (within 3 kcal/mol).

    • Conclusions:

    • The hydrophobic zipper hypothesis provides a viable mechanism for rapid protein folding.
    • Nonlocal hydrophobic interactions drive heteropolymer collapse cooperativity, leading to concurrent secondary structure and hydrophobic core formation.
    • This model explains how proteins achieve optimal structures without exhaustive conformational searches.