Distribution of the energy dissipation rates among degrees of freedom during conformational movements and folding of a macromolecular chain in a viscous medium

Abstract

The principle of the minimum rate of energy dissipation for conformational movements in a viscous medium formulated in an earlier study (K.V. Shaitan, Biophysics, 2015, Vol. 60, p. 692) has been applied for a theoretical estimation of the distribution functions of the energy dissipation rates for selected elements of a macromolecule. Equipartition of energy dissipation rates among the nodes of the chain upon conformational movements in the statistical limit of the process is obtained. The uniform distribution of energy dissipation rates along the chain does affect on the formation of the collective conformational degrees of freedom and the folding dynamics.