MINIMIZATION OF POLYPEPTIDE ENERGY, VI. SYSTEMATIC SEARCHES FOR LOW-ENERGY CONFORMATIONS OF DECA-L-ALANINE AND THE OCTAPEPTIDE LOOP OF RIBONUCLEASE*
Abstract
A succession of apparent local energy minima, in which the energies decrease successively, have been located for deca-L-alanine and the octapeptide loop of ribonuclease. The lowest energy minima were approximately 40 kcal/mole lower than the highest ones. The results suggest that the computational methods used here might be of considerable use in searching for the global energy minimum of larger polypeptides.
Footnotes
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↵ † Visiting scientist from the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology.
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↵ ‡ To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.
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↵ * This work was supported by research grant GB-7571X from the National Science Foundation and GM-14312 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, USPHS, and by a grant from the Eli Lilly Research Grants Committee.
