Shape measurement for cylindirical structures formed by tyrosine molecules

Abstract

Tyrosine is one of the important aromatic amino acids, the wrong metabolization of which usually results in severe mental diseases. Based on the simulation results it was observed that tyrosine molecules form fibril-like structures at high temperatures. In order to have a better understanding of tyrosine self-assembly, we developed a quantitative measure to analyze fibril-like shapes formed by tyrosine molecules. This was applied to 4 different temperatures and then was compared with the analysis from simulation data. As expected, tyrosine molecules indeed exhibit fibril-like structures at 350 K at a fast rate, which is perfectly in agreement with the analysis in literature.