I was wondering, when a protein gets formed in the cell it happens through translation of the mRNA by ribosomes and tRNA which transports the aminoacids onto the mRNA. Anyway, how fast does this proces goes? And will a peptide string that's only formed step by step fold different then starting with a full string and then let it fold? I can imagine that the first part of the string will start folding and that the end result will have possibly more energy then when you could start with the whole string unfolded. (cause the first part is already folded and can't be unfolded) Do they take this into account in the folding predictions?

I was wondering, when a protein gets formed in the cell it happens through translation of the mRNA by ribosomes and tRNA which transports the aminoacids onto the mRNA. Anyway, how fast does this proces goes? And will a peptide string that's only formed step by step fold different then starting with a full string and then let it fold? I can imagine that the first part of the string will start folding and that the end result will have possibly more energy then when you could start with the whole string unfolded. (cause the first part is already folded and can't be unfolded) Do they take this into account in the folding predictions?

This thread touches on some of these points

Does the N-terminus thread first?

This thread touches on some of these points

Does the N-terminus thread first?

Aha thanks! did a quick forum search but without results.
Especially the chaperones are quite interesting :)
Still wondering how much time it takes to build the protein (seconds? hours?)

Apparently this is approximately real-time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fOXt4MrOM

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