Functional protein domains from the thermally driven motion of polypeptide chains: a proposal.

It is proposed that the thermally driven motion of certain polypeptide chains, including those that are part of an otherwise stable folded protein, produces time-averaged three-dimensional domains that confer unique functions to a protein. These domains may be controlled by collapsing the polypeptide into an enthalpically favored structure, or extending it into an entropically dominated form. In the extended form, these domains occupy a relatively large space, which may be used to regulate protein-protein interactions and confer mechanical properties to proteins. This "entropic bristle" model makes several predictions about the structure and properties of these domains, and the predictions are used to reevaluate a range of biophysical studies on proteins. The outcome of the analysis suggests that the entropic bristle can be used to explain a wide range of disparate and apparently unrelated experimental observations.