Thermal stability of mutant proteins has been investigated
using temperature dependent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations
in vacuo. The numerical modeling was aimed at mimicking
protein expansion upon heating. After the conditions for
an expanding protein accessible surface area were established
for T4 lysozyme and barnase wild-type proteins, MD simulations
were carried out under the same conditions using the crystal
structures of several mutant proteins. The computed thermal
expansion of the accessible surface area of mutant proteins
was found to be strongly correlated with their experimentally
measured stabilities. A similar, albeit weaker, correlation
was observed for model mutant proteins. This opens the
possibility of obtaining stability information directly
from protein structure.