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The importance of short structural motifs in protein structure analysis

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Summary

Proteins tend to use recurrent structural motifs on all levels of organization. In this paper we first survey the topics of recurrent motifs on the local secondary structure level and on the global fold level. Then, we focus on the intermediate level which we call the short structural motifs. We were able to identify a set of structural building blocks that are very common in protein structure. We suggest that these building blocks can be used as an important link between the primary sequence and the tertiary structure. In this framework, we present our latest results on the structural variability of the extended strand motifs. We show that extended strands can be divided into three distinct structural classes, each with its own sequence specificity. Other approaches to the study of short structural motifs are reviewed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, Maryland Biotechnology Institute, University of Maryland, 9600 Gudelsky Dr., 20850, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.

    Ron Unger

  2. Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, MD, U.S.A.

    Ron Unger

  3. Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Joel L. Sussman

Authors
  1. Ron Unger
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  2. Joel L. Sussman
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Unger, R., Sussman, J.L. The importance of short structural motifs in protein structure analysis. J Computer-Aided Mol Des 7, 457–472 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02337561

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