title: Population statistics of protein structures: lessons from structural classifications.
abstract: Structural classifications aid the interpretation of proteins by describing degrees of structural and evolutionary relatedness. They have also recently revealed strikingly skewed distributions at all levels; for example, a small number of folds are far more common than others, and just a few superfamilies are known to have diverged widely. The classifications also provide an indication of the total number of superfamilies in nature.
authors.affiliation: Structural Biology Centre, National Institute for Bioscience and Human-Technology, Ibaraki, Japan. brenner@hyper.stanford.edu
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Brenner
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chothia
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Hubbard
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins