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Loop Modeling
Loop modeling is a problem in protein structure prediction requiring the prediction of the conformations of loop regions in proteins with or without the use of a structural template. Computer programs that solve these problems have been used to research a broad range of scientific topics from ADP to breast cancer. Because protein function is determined by its shape and the physiochemical properties of its exposed surface, it is important to create an accurate model for protein/ligand interaction studies. The problem arises often in homology modeling, where the tertiary structure of an amino acid sequence is predicted based on a sequence alignment to a ''template'', or a second sequence whose structure is known. Because loops have highly variable sequences even within a given structural motif or protein fold, they often correspond to unaligned regions in sequence alignments; they also tend to be located at the solvent-exposed surface of globular proteins and thus are more conform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protein Structure Prediction
Protein structure prediction is the inference of the three-dimensional structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence—that is, the prediction of its secondary and tertiary structure from primary structure. Structure prediction is different from the inverse problem of protein design. Protein structure prediction is one of the most important goals pursued by computational biology; and it is important in medicine (for example, in drug design) and biotechnology (for example, in the design of novel enzymes). Starting in 1994, the performance of current methods is assessed biannually in the CASP experiment (Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction). A continuous evaluation of protein structure prediction web servers is performed by the community project CAMEO3D. Protein structure and terminology Proteins are chains of amino acids joined together by peptide bonds. Many conformations of this chain are possible due to the rotation of the main chain abou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electron Density
In quantum chemistry, electron density or electronic density is the measure of the probability of an electron being present at an infinitesimal element of space surrounding any given point. It is a scalar quantity depending upon three spatial variables and is typically denoted as either \rho(\textbf r) or n(\textbf r). The density is determined, through definition, by the normalised N-electron wavefunction which itself depends upon 4N variables (3N spatial and N spin coordinates). Conversely, the density determines the wave function modulo up to a phase factor, providing the formal foundation of density functional theory. According to quantum mechanics, due to the uncertainty principle on an atomic scale the exact location of an electron cannot be predicted, only the probability of its being at a given position; therefore electrons in atoms and molecules act as if they are "smeared out" in space. For one-electron systems, the electron density at any point is proportional to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combines biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, information engineering, mathematics and statistics to analyze and interpret the biological data. Bioinformatics has been used for '' in silico'' analyses of biological queries using computational and statistical techniques. Bioinformatics includes biological studies that use computer programming as part of their methodology, as well as specific analysis "pipelines" that are repeatedly used, particularly in the field of genomics. Common uses of bioinformatics include the identification of candidates genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Often, such identification is made with the aim to better understand the genetic basis of disease, unique adaptations, desirable properties (e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Novo Protein Structure Prediction
In computational biology, ''de novo'' protein structure prediction refers to an algorithmic process by which protein tertiary structure is predicted from its amino acid primary sequence. The problem itself has occupied leading scientists for decades while still remaining unsolved. According to Science, the problem remains one of the top 125 outstanding issues in modern science. At present, some of the most successful methods have a reasonable probability of predicting the folds of small, single-domain proteins within 1.5 angstroms over the entire structure. ''De novo'' methods tend to require vast computational resources, and have thus only been carried out for relatively small proteins. De novo protein structure modeling is distinguished from Template-based modeling (TBM) by the fact that no solved homologue to the protein of interest is used, making efforts to predict protein structure from amino acid sequence exceedingly difficult. Prediction of protein structure ''de novo'' for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ramachandran Plot
In biochemistry, a Ramachandran plot (also known as a Rama plot, a Ramachandran diagram or a ,ψplot), originally developed in 1963 by G. N. Ramachandran, C. Ramakrishnan, and V. Sasisekharan, is a way to visualize energetically allowed regions for backbone dihedral angles ψ against φ of amino acid residues in protein structure. The figure on the left illustrates the definition of the φ and ψ backbone dihedral angles (called φ and φ' by Ramachandran). The ω angle at the peptide bond is normally 180°, since the partial-double-bond character keeps the peptide planar. The figure in the top right shows the allowed φ,ψ backbone conformational regions from the Ramachandran et al. 1963 and 1968 hard-sphere calculations: full radius in solid outline, reduced radius in dashed, and relaxed tau (N-Cα-C) angle in dotted lines. Because dihedral angle values are circular and 0° is the same as 360°, the edges of the Ramachandran plot "wrap" right-to-left and bottom-to-top. For ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conserved Sequence
In evolutionary biology, conserved sequences are identical or similar sequences in nucleic acids ( DNA and RNA) or proteins across species ( orthologous sequences), or within a genome ( paralogous sequences), or between donor and receptor taxa ( xenologous sequences). Conservation indicates that a sequence has been maintained by natural selection. A highly conserved sequence is one that has remained relatively unchanged far back up the phylogenetic tree, and hence far back in geological time. Examples of highly conserved sequences include the RNA components of ribosomes present in all domains of life, the homeobox sequences widespread amongst Eukaryotes, and the tmRNA in Bacteria. The study of sequence conservation overlaps with the fields of genomics, proteomics, evolutionary biology, phylogenetics, bioinformatics and mathematics. History The discovery of the role of DNA in heredity, and observations by Frederick Sanger of variation between animal insulins in 1949, prompt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protein NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of proteins (usually abbreviated protein NMR) is a field of structural biology in which NMR spectroscopy is used to obtain information about the structure and dynamics of proteins, and also nucleic acids, and their complexes. The field was pioneered by Richard R. Ernst and Kurt Wüthrich at the ETH, and by Ad Bax, Marius Clore, Angela Gronenborn at the NIH, and Gerhard Wagner at Harvard University, among others. Structure determination by NMR spectroscopy usually consists of several phases, each using a separate set of highly specialized techniques. The sample is prepared, measurements are made, interpretive approaches are applied, and a structure is calculated and validated. NMR involves the quantum-mechanical properties of the central core ("nucleus") of the atom. These properties depend on the local molecular environment, and their measurement provides a map of how the atoms are linked chemically, how close they are in space, and how rapid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protein Data Bank (file Format)
The Protein Data Bank (PDB) file format is a textual file format describing the three-dimensional structures of molecules held in the Protein Data Bank. The PDB format accordingly provides for description and annotation of protein and nucleic acid structures including atomic coordinates, secondary structure assignments, as well as atomic connectivity. In addition experimental metadata are stored. The PDB format is the legacy file format for the Protein Data Bank which now keeps data on biological macromolecules in the newer mmCIF file format. History The PDB file format was invented in 1976 as a human-readable file that would allow researchers to exchange protein coordinates through a database system. Its fixed-column width format is limited to 80 columns, which was based on the width of the computer punch cards that were previously used to exchange the coordinates.Berman, Helen M. "The protein data bank: a historical perspective." Acta Crystallographica Section A 64.1 (2007): 88-9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MODELLER
Modeller, often stylized as MODELLER, is a computer program used for homology modeling to produce models of protein tertiary structures and quaternary structures (rarer). It implements a method inspired by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of proteins (protein NMR), termed '' satisfaction of spatial restraints'', by which a set of geometrical criteria are used to create a probability density function for the location of each atom in the protein. The method relies on an input sequence alignment between the target amino acid sequence to be modeled and a template protein which structure has been solved. The program also incorporates limited functions for ab initio structure prediction of loop regions of proteins, which are often highly variable even among homologous proteins and thus difficult to predict by homology modeling. Modeller was originally written and is currently maintained by Andrej Sali at the University of California, San Francisco. It runs on the operating syst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrej Sali
Andrey, Andrej or Andrei (in Cyrillic script: Андрей, Андреј or Андрэй) is a form of Andreas/Ἀνδρέας in Slavic languages and Romanian. People with the name include: *Andrei of Polotsk ( – 1399), Lithuanian nobleman *Andrei Alexandrescu, Romanian computer programmer *Andrey Amador, Costa Rican cyclist *Andrei Arlovski, Belarusian mixed martial artist * Andrey Arshavin, Russian football player * Andrej Babiš, Czech prime minister *Andrey Belousov (born 1959), Russian politician *Andrey Bolotov, Russian agriculturalist and memoirist *Andrey Borodin, Russian financial expert and businessman *Andrei Chikatilo, prolific and cannibalistic Russian serial killer and rapist *Andrei Denisov (weightlifter) (born 1963), Israeli Olympic weightlifter *Andrey Ershov, Russian computer scientist *Andrey Esionov, Russian painter *Andrei Glavina, Istro-Romanian writer and politician *Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989), Belarusian Soviet politician and diplomat * Andrey Ivanov, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backbone-dependent Rotamer Library
In biochemistry, a backbone-dependent rotamer library provides the frequencies, mean dihedral angles, and standard deviations of the discrete conformations (known as rotamers) of the amino acid side chains in proteins as a function of the backbone dihedral angles φ and ψ of the Ramachandran map. By contrast, backbone-independent rotamer libraries express the frequencies and mean dihedral angles for all side chains in proteins, regardless of the backbone conformation of each residue type. Backbone-dependent rotamer libraries have been shown to have significant advantages over backbone-independent rotamer libraries, principally when used as an energy term, by speeding up search times of side-chain packing algorithms used in protein structure prediction and protein design. History The first backbone-dependent rotamer library was developed in 1993 by Roland Dunbrack and Martin Karplus to assist the prediction of the Cartesian coordinates of a protein's side chains given the expe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dihedral Angle
A dihedral angle is the angle between two intersecting planes or half-planes. In chemistry, it is the clockwise angle between half-planes through two sets of three atoms, having two atoms in common. In solid geometry, it is defined as the union of a line and two half-planes that have this line as a common edge. In higher dimensions, a dihedral angle represents the angle between two hyperplanes. The planes of a flying machine are said to be at positive dihedral angle when both starboard and port main planes (commonly called wings) are upwardly inclined to the lateral axis. When downwardly inclined they are said to be at a negative dihedral angle. Mathematical background When the two intersecting planes are described in terms of Cartesian coordinates by the two equations : a_1 x + b_1 y + c_1 z + d_1 = 0 :a_2 x + b_2 y + c_2 z + d_2 = 0 the dihedral angle, \varphi between them is given by: :\cos \varphi = \frac and satisfies 0\le \varphi \le \pi/2. Alternatively, if an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
