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

The fractal properties of the surfaces of ten globular protein molecul es have been investigated by calculations that made use of crystallogr aphic data on the atomic coordinates of these proteins. On length scal es 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 or igin of the proteins.