The Language of Protein Folding: Many Forked Tongues

Abstract Protein folding is discussed in analogy with language. The protein primary sequence, a string of successive amino acids in one letter code, is a sentence. A sentence contains words, or subsequences, which are the local secondary structures of the protein. Each of the words can have several meanings but, when collected together and read in context, convey a central idea; namely, the folded and functional protein. Deciphering the fold or meaning of the protein sentence from only a knowledge of the ordered letters is a difficult task.

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