PROTEIN ULTRAMETRICITY AND SPECTRAL DIFFUSION IN DEEPLY FROZEN PROTEINS

Abstract

Surprisingly accurate description of spectral diffusion in deeply frozen proteins is constructed on the basis of protein ultrametricity. We show that the ultrametric diffusion equation with self-similar hierarchy of the transition rates offers a simple description of protein dynamics in the spectral diffusion context. Earlier the same ultrametric diffusion equation has been used in the description of ligand-rebinding kinetics of myoglobin. Thus ultrametricity offers a universal background for the description of protein dynamics on very different scales of protein motions.