Fractional protein dynamics seen by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: Relating molecular dynamics simulation and experiment.

We propose a fractional Brownian dynamics model for time correlation functions characterizing the internal dynamics of proteins probed by NMR relaxation spectroscopy. The time correlation functions are represented by a broad distribution of exponential functions which are characterized by two parameters. We show that the model describes well the restricted rotational motion of N-H vectors in the amide groups of lysozyme obtained from molecular dynamics simulation and that reliable predictions of experimental relaxation rates can be obtained on that basis.