A New Two-State Polymer Folding Model and Its Application to alpha-Helical Polyalanine
A new two-state polymer folding model is proposed, in which the folding of a stiff helical polymer is enabled by allowing for short sequences of coils connecting shorter and separated helices. The folding is driven by short-range attraction energy among stacked helices and is opposed by the free-energy cost of forming coils from helical monomers. Principal outcomes of the model are equilibrium dis