Talk:Folding funnel

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 January 2019 and 26 April 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Yen181.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 21:34, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

unclear statement
"The hypothesis ... has misled some to the idea that protein folding is a simple optimization problem with one minimum. In reality, free energy contains enthalpic (i.e. energetic) and entropic contributions which make a direct optimization impossible."

Does "some" refer to actual researchers being mistaken, or just non-specialists? This needs to be clarified. Lfh (talk) 15:41, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

In many cases, there is (roughly) one global energetic minimum on the energy landscape: the native state ensemble! The argument that free energy contains an enthalpic and an entropic term, while true, does not mean that free energy cannot be optimized. Check out Anfinsen's thermodynamic hypothesis. Furthermore, probably the most intriguing aspect of protein folding is the ability of the polypeptide to find the free energy minimum on such small timescales--this fact is what has motivated the search for a 'folding mechanism.' That being said, there are certainly examples where competing minima exist (equilibrium intermediates, for example). I'm deleting the 'unclear statement' because I think it is not only misleading but largely incorrect. Cheers! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.244.210.152 (talk) 17:36, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Please provide a source
If you are going to un-delete a statement that two other readers have questioned as being clear or correct, please either clarify it or provide a source that attests to the validity of the claim. I have re-deleted the statement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.244.210.152 (talk) 23:19, 20 January 2011 (UTC)