Theoretical and Computational Aspects of Protein Structural Alignment

  • Paweł Daniluk
  • Bogdan Lesyng
Chapter
Part of the Springer Series in Bio-/Neuroinformatics book series (SSBN, volume 1)

Abstract

Computing alignments of proteins based on their structure is one of the fundamental tasks of bioinformatics. It is crucial in all kinds of comparative analysis as well as in performing evolutionary and functional classification. Whereas determination of sequence relationships is well founded in statistical models, there is still considerable uncertainty over how to describe geometric relationships between proteins. Continuous growth of structural databases calls for fast and reliable algorithmic methods, enabling one to effectively compute alignments of pairs and larger sets of protein molecules. Although such methodologies have been developed over the past two decades, there exist so-called “difficult similarities” which may include repeats, insertions or deletions, permutations, and conformational changes. A brief overview of existing methodologies with emphasis on different approaches to decomposition of structures into smaller fragments is followed by a presentation of a formalism of local descriptors of protein structures. A formal definition of the problem of computing optimal alignments accommodating aforementioned difficulties is presented along with an analysis of the computational complexity of its important variants. Examples of “difficult similarities” and practical aspects of protein structure comparison are discussed.

Keywords

Multiple Alignment Local Similarity Maximal Clique Structural Alignment Local Descriptor 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Paweł Daniluk
    • 1
    • 2
  • Bogdan Lesyng
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Biophysics, Faculty of PhysicsUniversity of WarsawWarsawPoland
  2. 2.Bioinformatics LaboratoryMossakowski Medical Research CentreWarsawPoland

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