A model for the accidental catalysis of protein unfolding in vivo
arXiv:q-bio/0409025 · doi:10.1209/epl/i2004-10249-7
Abstract
Activated processes such as protein unfolding are highly sensitive to heterogeneity in the environment. We study a highly simplified model of a protein in a random heterogeneous environment, a model of the in vivo environment. It is found that if the heterogeneity is sufficiently large the total rate of the process is essentially a random variable; this may be the cause of the species-to-species variability in the rate of prion protein conversion found by Deleault et al. [Nature, 425 (2003) 717].
5 pages, 2 figures