title: PconsFold: improved contact predictions improve protein models.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently it has been shown that the quality of protein contact prediction from evolutionary information can be improved significantly if direct and indirect information is separated. Given sufficiently large protein families, the contact predictions contain sufficient information to predict the structure of many protein families. However, since the first studies contact prediction methods have improved. Here, we ask how much the final models are improved if improved contact predictions are used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In a small benchmark of 15 proteins, we show that the TM-scores of top-ranked models are improved by on average 33% using PconsFold compared with the original version of EVfold. In a larger benchmark, we find that the quality is improved with 15-30% when using PconsC in comparison with earlier contact prediction methods. Further, using Rosetta instead of CNS does not significantly improve global model accuracy, but the chemistry of models generated with Rosetta is improved.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  PconsFold is a fully automated pipeline for ab initio protein structure prediction based on evolutionary information. PconsFold is based on PconsC contact prediction and uses the Rosetta folding protocol. Due to its modularity, the contact prediction tool can be easily exchanged. The source code of PconsFold is available on GitHub at https://www.github.com/ElofssonLab/pcons-fold under the MIT license. PconsC is available from http://c.pcons.net/.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland and Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland and Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Mirco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland and Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Sikander
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayat
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland and Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Marcin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Skwark
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland and Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sander
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland and Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Debora S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland and Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Box 1031, 17121 Solna, Sweden, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland and Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elofsson
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D011506:Proteins