High pressure simulations of biomolecules

Pressure is a thermodynamic variable which is particularly suitable for exploration of the properties of biological macromolecules. For proteins, in particular, denaturation induced by press-are is different from that induced by temperature or denaturants. The response of proteins to pressure changes can provide information on properties of their native and non-native states. This review focuses on molecular dynamics studies of the effect of pressure on detailed atomic models of proteins. It also reports on other theoretical approaches, such as Monte Carlo simulations, which have been used to study simplified models. Another purpose of this review is to try to point out potential future studies that may be both interesting and feasible, with constantly increasing computing power. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.