Week 28 / Protein folding Flashcards
Q: What happens to energy during protein folding?
Q: What kind of structural change occurs during protein folding?
Q: How can the folding process be more accurately described in terms of order?
Q: What is the thermodynamic problem in protein folding?
A: Folding goes from a high energy state to a lower energy state.
A: Movement from disorder to order—this is the acquisition of the native conformation.
A: Disorder → Order
A: It involves the movement down a thermodynamic landscape toward the protein’s most stable (lowest energy) state.
Q: What does the unfolded (U) state of a protein represent?
Q: What is the native (N) state of a protein?
Flashcard 3
Q: What determines the folding path and native structure of a protein?
Flashcard 4
Q: What is the largest driving force of protein folding?
Flashcard 5
Q: What happens to organizing interactions once the native structure is formed?
A: A random coil with no fixed 3D structure.
A: The lowest energy conformation, where the protein is properly folded and functional.
A: Side chain interactions guide both the folding path and the final native state.
A: The hydrophobic effect, which causes non-polar side chains to cluster away from water.
A: They are maintained to preserve the protein’s stability and function.
Q: Protein folding seems to reduce entropy (ΔS). Why does it not violate the second law of thermodynamics?
Q: Why is water more ordered around unfolded proteins?
Flashcard 3
Q: What happens to water molecules when a protein folds?
Flashcard 4
Q: What is the Gibbs free energy equation?
Flashcard 5
Q: What does a negative ΔG indicate in protein folding?
A: Although the protein becomes more ordered, the overall system entropy increases due to the disordering of water molecules around the protein.
A: Because hydrophobic regions are exposed, causing water molecules to form structured shells around them.
A: Water molecules become disordered as hydrophobic residues are buried, increasing overall entropy.
A: ΔG = ΔH − TΔS
A: The folding process is spontaneous and thermodynamically favorable.
