Side-chain Side-chain Interactions in Proteins

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Science Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry Side-chain Side-chain Interactions in Proteins Doctoral Thesis Abstract RNDr. Karel Berka Supervisors: Prof. Ing. Pavel Hobza, DrSc., FRSC RNDr. Jiří Vondrášek, CSc. Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry AS CR Center for Biomolecules and Complex Molecular Systems Praha 2009 2 Introduction Proteins are the most versatile and useful molecules in the cellular arsenal. They are the best catalysts the nature knows. Proteins cover the biggest amount of the cellular functions with range from metabolism and signaling through cell architecture to DNA replication. Variations of their structure and functions are amazing. And yet, they are built from simple building blocks - amino acids. Each amino acid has many possibilities of interactions with its neighborhood and the sequential context manifested through these possibilities is the main reason for the structure variability. The experimental investigation of the character and relative strength of interactions between amino acid residues is difficult. On the other hand, theoretical chemistry methods and techniques of are well suited for such task. They can provide useful information about structure, stability and nature of these interactions. The aim of the..