Fractal Studies on Protein Molecular Chains

Abstract

A new method for the calculation of the fractal dimension (D) of a protein molecular chain and the D values of three kinds of protein are re ported. Thirty-nine proteins covering four structural classes of proteins, selected from the protein data bank were computed. It was found that the mean value of fractal dimension of protein increased in order of the local D_L < middle mean D_M < global D_G for the short, middle and long range construc tion, respectively. The D value decreased in order of α > α/β > (α + β) > β for the structural classes of protein molecules. This suggests that the fractal dimension may be used to characterize the tertiary structure of a protein. As a structural quantity it reflects the morphology of a protein chain based on the amino acid sequence.