Hydropathy
Hydropathy is the property of a molecule or a molecular region to interact with water. In biochemistry, it is used to describe the tendency of amino acids and protein segments to be hydrophilic (water-loving) or hydrophobic (water-avoiding). Hydropathy values are derived from scales that assign numerical scores to residues or segments, and the sign and magnitude of these scores depend on the specific scale used; some scales assign higher values to hydrophobic residues, while others use the opposite convention.
One widely used example is the Kyte-Doolittle hydropathy index, which provides a numerical value for each amino
Hydropathy concepts are foundational in protein structure prediction, membrane protein topology, and protein engineering. They are
Related concepts include hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity, with various scales (such as Eisenberg’s hydrophobicity scale) that provide