Abstract
Helical polymer bundles are an important fixture in biomolecular systems. The particular structural geometry of helix bundles is dependent on many factors including the length of the polymer chain. In this study, we performed Monte Carlo simulations of a coarse-grained model for helical polymers to determine the influence of polymer length on tertiary structure formation. Helical structures of semiflexible polymers are analyzed for several chain lengths under thermal conditions. Structural hyperphase diagrams, parametrized by torsion strength and temperature, are constructed and compared.
Highlights
Helical geometries are a ubiquitous element of biological polymer structures
Since transitions in these decidedly finite systems are not considered to be phase transitions in the thermodynamic sense [8,9], alternative approaches to understanding structural transitions have to be employed in order to gain new insight into their structure and behavior [10,11,12,13,14]
By analyzing an entire class of helical polymers at several lengths, we investigate the influence of the system size on helical structural phases of semiflexible polymers
Summary
Understanding the influences on tertiary structure formation in helical molecules is an important goal in the study of biomolecular systems. In such mesoscopic systems, structural geometry and stability are greatly influenced or even dominated by finite-size effects. Helix formation can be described as a one-dimensional Ising-like transition [6,7] Since transitions in these decidedly finite systems are not considered to be phase transitions in the thermodynamic sense [8,9], alternative approaches to understanding structural transitions have to be employed in order to gain new insight into their structure and behavior [10,11,12,13,14]
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