Researchers use classical music to make protein songs more pleasant to
listen to

Date:
September 29, 2021
Source:
Cell Press
Summary:
In recent years, scientists have created music based on the
structure of proteins as a creative way to better popularize
science to the general public, but the resulting songs haven't
always been pleasant to the ear.

In a new study, researchers use the style of existing music genres
to guide the structure of protein song to make it more musical.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In recent years, scientists have created music based on the structure of proteins as a creative way to better popularize science to the general
public, but the resulting songs haven't always been pleasant to the
ear. In a study appearing September 29 in the journal Heliyon, researchers
use the style of existing music genres to guide the structure of protein
song to make it more musical. Using the style of Fre'de'ric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu and other classical pieces as a guide, the researchers succeeded in converting proteins into song with greater musicality.


========================================================================== Creating unique melodies from proteins is achieved by using
a protein-to-music algorithm. This algorithm incorporates specific
elements of proteins -- like the size and position of amino acids -- and
maps them to various musical elements to create an auditory "blueprint"
of the proteins' structure.

"Existing protein music has mostly been designed by simple mapping
of certain amino acid patterns to fundamental musical features such
as pitches and note lengths, but they do not map well to more complex
musical features such as rhythm and harmony," says senior author Yu Zong
Chen, a professor in the Department of Pharmacy at National University
of Singapore. "By focusing on a music style, we can guide more complex
mappings of combinations of amino acid patterns with various musical
features." For their experiment, researchers analyzed the pitch,
length, octaves, chords, dynamics, and main theme of four pieces from
the mid-1800s Romantic era of classical music. These pieces, including Fantasie-Impromptu from Chopin and Wanderer Fantasy from Franz Schubert,
were selected to represent the notable Fantasy-Impromptu genre that
emerged during that time.

"We chose the specific music style of a Fantasy-Impromptu as it is characterized by freedom of expression, which we felt would complement
how proteins regulate much of our bodily functions, including our moods,"
says co- author Peng Zhang (@zhangpeng1202), a post-doctoral fellow
at the Rockefeller University Likewise, several of the proteins in the
study were chosen for their similarities to the key attributes of the Fantasy-Impromptu style. Most of the 18 proteins tested regulate functions including human emotion, cognition, sensation, or performance which the
authors say connect to the emotional and expressive of the genre.

Then, they mapped 104 structural, physicochemical, and binding amino acid properties of those proteins to the six musical features. "We screened the quantitative profile of each amino acid property against the quantized
values of the different musical features to find the optimal mapped
pairings. For example, we mapped the size of amino acid to note length,
so that having a larger amino acid size corresponds to a shorter note
length," says Chen.

Across all the proteins tested, the researchers found that the musicality
of the proteins was significantly improved. In particular, the protein
receptor for oxytocin (OXTR) was judged to have one of the greatest
increases in musicality when using the genre-guided algorithm, compared
to an earlier version of the protein-to-music algorithm.

"The oxytocin receptor protein generated our favorite song," says
Zhang. "This protein sequence produced an identifiable main theme that
repeats in rhythm throughout the piece, as well as some interesting motifs
and patterns that recur independent of our algorithm. There were also some pleasant harmonic progressions; for example, many of the seventh chords naturally resolve." The authors do note, however, that while the guided algorithm increased the overall musicality of the protein songs, there
is still much progress to be made before it resembles true human music.

"We believe a next step is to explore more music styles and more complex combinations of amino acid properties for enhanced musicality and novel
music pieces. Another next step, a very important step, is to apply
artificial intelligence to jointly learn complex amino acid properties
and their combinations with respect to the features of various music
styles for creating protein music of enhanced musicality," says Chen.

Research supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Singapore Academic Funds.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Cell_Press. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Chen et al. Protein Music of Enhanced Musicality by Music Style
Guided
Exploration of Diverse Amino Acid Properties. Heliyon, 2021 DOI:
10.1016/ j.heliyon.2021.e07933 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210929112814.htm

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