Application and implementation of probabilistic profile-profile comparison methods for protein fold recognition
Fold recognition is a method of fold detecting and protein tertiary structure prediction applied for proteins lacking homologues sequences of known fold and structure deposited in the Protein Data Bank. They are based on assumption that there is strictly limited number of different protein folds in nature, mostly as a result of evolution and due to basic physical and chemical constraints of polypeptide chains. Fold recognition methods are useful for protein structure prediction, evolutionary analysis, metabolic pathways and enzymatic efficiency prediction, molecular docking and drug design. Currently there are about 1300 discovered and characterized protein folds in SCOP and CATH databases. Every newly discovered protein sequence has significant chances to be classified into one of those folds. Many different approaches have been proposed for finding the correct fold for a new sequence and it is often useful to include evolutionary information for query as well as for target proteins.