The role of hydrophobicity patterns in prion folding as revealed by recurrence quantification analysis of primary structure

Abstract

It has been suggested that the number and strength of local contacts are the major factors governing conformation accessibility of model two ground-state polypeptide chains. This phenomenology has been posed as a possible factor influencing prion folding. To test this conjecture, recurrence quantification analysis was applied to two model 36 mers, and the Syrian hamster prion protein. A unique divergence of the radius function for the recurrence quantification variable %DET of hydrophobicity patterns was observed for both 36 mers, and in a critical region of the hamster prion protein. This divergence suggests a partition between strong short- and long-range hydrophobicity patterns, and may be an important factor in prion phenomenology, along with other global thermodynamic factors.