Department of Molecular Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037.
Protein Eng 6: 801-10 (1993)
Abstract
The description of protein structure in the language of side chain
contact maps is shown to offer many advantages over more traditional
approaches. Because it focuses on side chain interactions, it aids in
the discovery, study and classification of similarities between
interactions defining particular protein folds and offers new insights
into the rules of protein structure. For example, there is a small
number of characteristic patterns of interactions between protein
supersecondary structural fragments, which can be seen in various
non-related proteins. Furthermore, the overlap of the side chain contact
maps of two proteins provides a new measure of protein structure
similarity. As shown in several examples, alignments based on contact
map overlaps are a powerful alternative to other structure-based
alignments.
Mesh Headings
Unique Identifier: 94143333
Chemical Identifiers (Names)