ISSN:
1432-1432
Keywords:
Immunoglobulins
;
Canonical conformations
;
CDR
;
Zipf law
;
Inverse power law
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Abstract Two types of distributions for the frequencies of occurrence of amino acids in each position of hypervariable regions CDR-1 and CDR-2 were obtained for 2,000 immunoglobulins. The results show that some positions fit an inverse power-law distribution, while others fit an exponential-type distribution. As a result of comparison with structural data in the literature it is proposed that sites in which the frequency distribution fits the inverse power law are critical to maintaining canonical shapes of the recognition regions or are involved in modulating these canonical conformations, while those sites where the distribution fits the exponential law are those which should be exclusively involved in the recognition mechanism.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00174045
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