Background: Designing amino acid sequences that are stable in a given targe
t structure amounts to maximizing a conditional probability. A straightforw
ard approach to accomplishing this is a nested Monte Carte where the confor
mation space is explored over and over again for different fixed sequences;
this requires excessive computational demand. Several approximate attempts
to remedy this situation, based on energy minimization for fixed structure
or high-T expansions, have been proposed. These methods are fast but often
not accurate, as folding occurs at low T.
Results: We have developed a multisequence Monte Carte procedure where both
sequence and conformational space are simultaneously probed with efficient
prescriptions for pruning sequence space. The method is explored on hydrop
hobic/polar models. First we discuss short lattice chains in order to compa
re with exact data and with other methods. The method is then successfully
applied to lattice chains with up to 50 monomers and to off-lattice 20mers.
Conclusions: The multisequence Monte Carlo method offers a new approach to
sequence design in coarse-grained models. It is much more efficient than pr
evious Monte Carto methods, and is, as it stands, applicable to a fairly wi
de range of two-letter models.