Prediction of Low-Energy Structures of Met-Enkephalin by Monte Carlo Simulated Annealing

The efficiency of the Monte Carlo simulated annealing method for prediction of the low-energy structures of Met-enkephalin is examined with the exact ECEPP function. Among the 40 obtained conformations, eleven, including the lowest-energy conformation, exhibit structure similar to the tertiary structure predicted by the Monte Carlo with minimization method. The average energy of these conformations are considerably lower than those of the remaining conformations. These findings prove the effectiveness of the method.