title: Evolutionary information for specifying a protein fold.
abstract: Classical studies show that for many proteins, the information required for specifying the tertiary structure is contained in the amino acid sequence. Here, we attempt to define the sequence rules for specifying a protein fold by computationally creating artificial protein sequences using only statistical information encoded in a multiple sequence alignment and no tertiary structure information. Experimental testing of libraries of artificial WW domain sequences shows that a simple statistical energy function capturing coevolution between amino acid residues is necessary and sufficient to specify sequences that fold into native structures. The artificial proteins show thermodynamic stabilities similar to natural WW domains, and structure determination of one artificial protein shows excellent agreement with the WW fold at atomic resolution. The relative simplicity of the information used for creating sequences suggests a marked reduction to the potential complexity of the protein-folding problem.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390-9050, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Socolich
authors.forename: Steve W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lockless
authors.forename: William P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Russ
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kevin H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Rama
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ranganathan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D019295:Computational Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D017510:Protein Folding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins