Fri, 06/20/2008 - 18:57
I was just wondering how random wiggle backbone is.
If two folders started with the exact same starting protein position and both hit wiggle backbone, would they end up with the exact same protein fold and score? Or is the some randomness in the wiggle that would create two different folds?
Keep up the great work, I really enjoy folding.
You can prove it to yourself by undoing your last wiggle and doing it again.
I haven't tinkered much with it lately, but I'm told there can be some variation though if you were to compare one wiggle that runs through to the score not changing... with a wiggle that you stop then start several times along the way.
This seems almost appears to be due to momentum of the atoms in motion.
You can also get some different results if you stop the wiggle in the middle, and do a shake of all the sidechains, and then wiggle again. Sometimes doing this will improve your result. Sometimes not. So always try both ways for your first major wiggle of a puzzle.