Physical principles of protein structure and protein folding.

ABSTRACT

Physical principles determining the protein structure and protein folding are reviewed (i) the molecular theory of protein secondary structure and the method of its prediction based on this theory; (ii) the existence of a limited set of thermodynamically favourable folding patterns of α- and ß-regions in a compact globule which does not depend on the details of the amino acid sequence; (iii) the moderns approaches to the prediction of the folding patterns of α- and ß-regions in concrete proteins; (iv) experimental approaches to the mechanism of protein folding. The review reflects theoretical and experimental works of the author and his collaborators as well as those of other groups.