Identification of protein domains on topological basis.
A theoretical method is proposed to identify structural domains in proteins of known structures. It is based on the distribution of the local axes of the polypeptide chain. In particular, a statistical analysis is applied to the contributions of the local axes to the absolute writhing number, a topological property of a space curve resulting from the number of self-crossings in the curve projections onto a unit sphere. This finding supports the hypothesis that topological requirements should be satisfied in the process of protein folding and in the final organization of the tertiary structures.
Anselmi
C
C
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università La Sapienza, Ple A. Moro 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy.
Bocchinfuso
G
G
Scipioni
A
A
De Santis
P
P
D016208:Databases, Factual; D008958:Models, Molecular; D017510:Protein Folding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
D011506:Proteins