Protein homology model building

In the protein structure database PDB ( http //www. rcsb.org/pdb), by X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy, experimentally solved 3D-protein structures are available to the public. Homology model building for a query sequence uses protein portions of known 3D-stmctures as structural templates for proteins with high sequence similarity. 

For peptides and nucleic acids, the system should provide rapid generation of a model from sequence data in any of the commonly observed conformations (e.g., a-helix, /J-sheet, /2-turn, B-DNA, Z-DNA). For peptides, it should be possible to make insertions or deletions in the sequence easily and to mutate side chains for homology model-building applications, where the sequence of the unknown structure is mapped onto the three-dimensional structure of a sequentially homologous protein whose structure has previously been determined by X-ray crystallography. 

Advancements in crystallography/NMR techniques have resulted in an exponential increase in the number of protein structures in publicly available structural databases (e.g., as of September 2009, the Protein Database Bank PDB contains experimentally solved 3D structural data for 60,000 structures (www.pdb.org)). In addition, several structural genomics consortiums aim to provide crystal structures across all protein families (38). In case when experimental structures are not available, techniques such as homology modeling are often used to build structural models of other homologous proteins (21). 

Initially, we attempted to build a 3-D homology model of the transmembrane regions of the human thrombin receptor from the structure of IBRD, which is available from the Brookhaven Protein Database. Unfortunately, the suboptimal placement of several amino acid side chains resulted in severe deviations from structural standards for membrane-bound receptors with a seven-helix bundle topology (Figure 2). For example, carboxylate and ammonium groups on amino acid side chains at a mid-helix location were directed into the membrane, rather than toward the inside of the helix bundle, and the hydrophobic packing between some helices was either poor or nonexistent. 

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