Using Gravitropism Artificial Plant Optimization Algorithm to Solve Toy Model of Protein Folding

Artificial plant optimization algorithm is a novel proposed evolutionary strategy inspired by the plant growing process. In this algorithm, three main mechanisms: photosynthesis, phototropism and apical dominance are simulated by corresponding operators. However, the gravitropism mechanism is omitted in the standard version. In this paper, we employ this phenomenon to enhance the performance. To test the efficiency, we apply this new variant to solve protein structure prediction problem, including short sequences, Fibonacci sequences and real protein sequences, simulation results show it is effective.