Topological complexity, contact order, and protein folding rates

Abstract

Monte Carlo simulations of protein folding show the emergence of a strong correlation between the relative contact order parameter, CO, and the folding time, t, of two-state folding proteins for longer chains with number of amino acids N⩾54, and higher contact order, CO>0.17. The correlation is particularly strong for N=80 corresponding to slow and more complex folding kinetics. These results are qualitatively compatible with experimental data where a general trend towards increasing t with CO is indeed observed in a set of proteins with chain length ranging from 41 to 154 amino acids.