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