Critical Single-Point Mutations and Protein Folding Pathways.

Single-point mutations can have a dramatic effect on protein structure. Treating a mutation as a perturbation of a protein's folded structure may not reveal a significant effect on that structure. The dependence of a protein's structure on a mutation may only be understood when the mutation's effect on the folding pathway is known. A united-residue model (Liwo \textit{et al}., PNAS, \textbf{102}, 2367, $2005)$ was used to study the effect of single-point mutations on protein folding pathways.