Inga Sandler, Nitzan Zigdon, Efrat Levy, Amir Aharoni
Computational approaches for detecting co-evolution in proteins allow for the identification of protein-protein interaction networks in different organisms and the assignment of function to under-explored proteins. The detection of co-variation of amino acids within or between proteins, moreover, allows for the discovery of residue-residue contacts and highlights functional residues that can affect the binding affinity, catalytic activity, or substrate specificity of a protein. To explore the functional impact of co-evolutionary changes in proteins, a combined experimental and computational approach must be recruited...
February 2014: Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences: CMLS