%0 Journal Article %J Biophysical Journal %D 1999 %T De novo simulations of the folding thermodynamics of the GCN4 leucine zipper %A Debasisa Mohanty %A Andrzej Koliński %A Jeffrey Skolnick %K Computer Simulation %K Dimerization %K DNA-Binding Proteins %K Fungal Proteins %K Fungal Proteins: chemistry %K Leucine Zippers %K Monte Carlo Method %K Protein Conformation %K Protein Denaturation %K Protein Folding %K Protein Kinases %K Protein Kinases: chemistry %K Protein Structure %K Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins %K Secondary %K Temperature %K Thermodynamics %X Entropy Sampling Monte Carlo (ESMC) simulations were carried out to study the thermodynamics of the folding transition in the GCN4 leucine zipper (GCN4-lz) in the context of a reduced model. Using the calculated partition functions for the monomer and dimer, and taking into account the equilibrium between the monomer and dimer, the average helix content of the GCN4-lz was computed over a range of temperatures and chain concentrations. The predicted helix contents for the native and denatured states of GCN4-lz agree with the experimental values. Similar to experimental results, our helix content versus temperature curves show a small linear decline in helix content with an increase in temperature in the native region. This is followed by a sharp transition to the denatured state. van't Hoff analysis of the helix content versus temperature curves indicates that the folding transition can be described using a two-state model. This indicates that knowledge-based potentials can be used to describe the properties of the folded and unfolded states of proteins. %B Biophysical Journal %V 77 %P 54–69 %8 jul %@ 6197848821 %G eng %U http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1300312&tool=pmcentrez&rendertype=abstract %R 10.1016/S0006-3495(99)76872-4