Uncovering the underlying physical mechanisms of biological systems via quantification of landscape and flux

Xu Li^{1, †,}, Chu Xiakun¹, Yan Zhiqiang¹, Zheng Xiliang¹, Zhang Kun¹, Zhang Feng¹, Yan Han¹, Wu Wei¹, Wang Jin^{1, 2, ‡,}

Quantitative illustrations of protein folding funnels for (a) villin headpiece, (b) CI2, and (c) P13 from simulations. TheZaxis is energy. The area of each ellipsoid stratum represents entropy. The semimajor axis of the ellipsoid at each stratum is, whereQis similar to native structure andS_ris a constant. The quantitative relationship of energy, entropy, and structure can be inferred from the quantified energy landscapes.^[54]