Parallel particle swarm optimization applied to the protein folding problem

Abstract

This article presents the implementation of a bio-inspired algorithm, which is the algorithm of particle swarm optimization (PSO) in with the objective of minimizing the function of conformational energy ECEPP/3 for the protein folding problem (PFP) for real conformations considering structural restrictions. In this case, using a representation of torsion angles of the skeleton and the side chains, applying the sequence of amino acid of the peptide leu-enkephalin for the prediction of 3D structure of minimum energy. The quality of the results is compared with other techniques reported in literature. Subsequently, the PSO is used to predict the structure of unknown proteins.