AN ANALYSIS OF THE FRACTAL PROPERTIES OF THE SURFACES OF GLOBULAR-PROTEINS

The fractal properties of the surfaces of ten globular protein molecules have been investigated by calculations that made use of crystallographic data on the atomic coordinates of these proteins. On length scales from about 1.5 to at least 7.5 angstrom, the fractal dimensions D(s) of the protein surfaces were found to lie between 2.10 and 2.17 and thus were not much greater than the value D(s) = 2 characteristic of a smooth surface. The calculated fractal dimensions D(s) did not depend on the molecular mass, molecular diameter, biological function, or origin of the proteins.