The separability between overall and internal motions is evaluated over multiple folding trajectories of the villin headpiece subdomain. The analysis, which relies on the Prompers-Brüschweiler separability index, offers a potentially useful perspective on protein folding. The protein is considered folded in this study, not when it reaches some static target, but rather when it tumbles as a dynamically constrained object. The analysis also demonstrates how the separability index, when applied to protein folding simulations, can facilitate the analysis of NMR relaxation data.
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