Hostname: page-component-669899f699-chc8l Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-02T05:14:57.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Protein Forced Unfolding and Its Effects on the Finite Deformation Stress-Strain Behavior of Biomacromolecular Solids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

H. Jerry Qi ,
Christine Ortiz  and
Mary C. Boyce
H. Jerry Qi
Affiliation:
Departments of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309
Christine Ortiz
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering
Mary C. Boyce
Affiliation:
Departments of Mechanical Engineering
Get access

Abstract

Many proteins have been experimentally observed to exhibit a force-extension behavior with a characteristic repeating pattern of a nonlinear rise in force with imposed displacement to a peak, followed by a significant force drop upon reaching the peak (a “saw-tooth” profile) due to successive unfolding of modules during extension. This behavior is speculated to play a governing role in biological and mechanical functions of natural materials and biological networks composed of assemblies of such protein molecules. In this paper, a constitutive model for the finite deformation stress-strain behavior of crosslinked networks of modular macromolecules is developed. The force-extension behavior of the individual modular macromolecule is represented using the Freely Jointed Chain (FJC) statistical mechanics model together with a two-state theory to capture unfolding. The single molecule behavior is then incorporated into a formal continuum mechanics framework to construct a constitutive model. Simulations illustrate a relatively smooth “yield”-like stress-strain behavior of these materials due to activate unfolding in these microstructures.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 874: Symposium l – Structure and Mechanical Behavior of Biological Materials , 2005 , L4.3
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

[1] Rief, M., Gautel, M., Oesterhelt, F., Fernandez, J.M., Gaub, H.E., Science, 276, 1109 (1997).Google Scholar
[2] Oberhauser, A.F., Marszalek, P.E., Erickson, H.P., Fernandez, J.M., Nature, 393, 181 (1998).Google Scholar
[3] Law, R., Carl, P., Harper, S., Dalhaimer, P., Speicher, D., Discher, D.E., Biophys. J., 84, 533 (2003).Google Scholar
[4] Kuhn, W., Grun, F., Kolliod Z., 101, 248 (1942).Google Scholar
[5] Bell, G.I., Science, 200, 618 (1978).Google Scholar
[6] Evans, E., Ritchie, K., Biophys. J., 72, 1541 (1997).Google Scholar
[7] Improta, S., Politou, A.S., Pastore, A., Structure, 4, 323 (1996).Google Scholar
[8] Berman, H.M., Westbrook, J., Feng, Z., Gilliland, G., Bhat, T.N., Weissig, H., Shindyalov, I.N., Bourne, P.E., Nucleic Acids Research, 28, 235 (2000).Google Scholar
[9] Rief, M., Fernandez, J.M., Gaub, H.E.. Phys. Rev. Let., 81, 4764 (1998).Google Scholar
[10] Arruda, E.M., Boyce, M.C., J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 41, 389 (1993).Google Scholar
[11] Becker, N., Oroudjev, E., Mutz, S., Cleveland, J.P., Hansma, P.K., Hayashi, C.Y., Makarov, D.E., H.G. Hansma. 21, 278 (2003).Google Scholar
[12] Qi, H.J., Ortiz, C., Boyce, M.C.; Proceedings of IUTAM, Springer Verlag, ed. Holzapfel, G. and Ogden, R.W. (2005).Google Scholar