Computational analysis of protein structures: Sources, methods, systems and results

Computational molecular biology is a relatively new specialty that has arisen in response to the very large amount and quality of data currently being produced, including gene and protein sequences ('one-dimensional' information) and nucleic acid and protein structures ('three-dimensional' information). Many important biological investigations can be carried out only through effective computational access to the entire corpus of data. This has stimulated the development of data banks and information retrieval systems. For example, after determination of a new gene sequence, one would like to know whether it is possible to say anything about its structure and function. To try to answer this question one screens the sequence of the corresponding protein for a significant similarity to a protein of known structure. In this article we describe the kinds of inferences that are possible if such a relationship is found.