Iterative Annealing Mechanism for Protein and RNA Chaperones

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Hyeon, Changbong, Thirumalai, D.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Hyeon, Changbong
Thirumalai, D.
author_facet Hyeon, Changbong
Thirumalai, D.
contents Molecular chaperones are machines that consume copious amount of ATP to drive misfolded proteins or RNA to fold into functionally competent native states. Because the folding landscapes of biomolecules with complex native state topology are rugged consisting of multiple minima that are separated by large free energy barriers, folding occurs by the kinetic partitioning mechanism according to which only a small fraction of the molecules reach the folded state in biologically viable times. The rescue of such proteins and RNA require chaperones. Although the protein and RNA chaperones are profoundly different in their structure and action, the principles underlying their activity to produce the folded structures can be understood using a unified theoretical framework based on iterative annealing mechanism (IAM). Our theory shows that both these machines have evolved to the maximize the production of the steady state yield on biological times. Strikingly, theory predicts that only at a moderate level of RNA chaperone activity is the yield of the self-splicing pre-RNA is maximized in \textit{in vivo}.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_12645
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Iterative Annealing Mechanism for Protein and RNA Chaperones
Hyeon, Changbong
Thirumalai, D.
Biological Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
Biomolecules
Molecular chaperones are machines that consume copious amount of ATP to drive misfolded proteins or RNA to fold into functionally competent native states. Because the folding landscapes of biomolecules with complex native state topology are rugged consisting of multiple minima that are separated by large free energy barriers, folding occurs by the kinetic partitioning mechanism according to which only a small fraction of the molecules reach the folded state in biologically viable times. The rescue of such proteins and RNA require chaperones. Although the protein and RNA chaperones are profoundly different in their structure and action, the principles underlying their activity to produce the folded structures can be understood using a unified theoretical framework based on iterative annealing mechanism (IAM). Our theory shows that both these machines have evolved to the maximize the production of the steady state yield on biological times. Strikingly, theory predicts that only at a moderate level of RNA chaperone activity is the yield of the self-splicing pre-RNA is maximized in \textit{in vivo}.
title Iterative Annealing Mechanism for Protein and RNA Chaperones
topic Biological Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
Biomolecules
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.12645