SCHEMA is a computational

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

used in protein engineering to identify fragments of

proteins Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, re ...

(called ''schemas'') that can be recombined without disturbing the integrity of the proteins' three-dimensional structure. The algorithm calculates the interactions between a protein's different

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...

residues to determine which interactions may be disrupted by swapping structural domains of the protein. By minimizing these disruptions, SCHEMA can be used to engineer chimeric proteins that stably fold and may have altered function relative to their parent proteins. SCHEMA algorithm has been applied in the recombinant libraries of distantly related β-lactamases.

References

{{reflist Bioinformatics algorithms