Shapes of life
A gene's DNA sequence reveals which amino acids will appear in the protein of the gene. To guess a new protein's function, scientists compare its amino acids with those of familiar proteins. If two proteins share much of their sequence, then chances are they do similar jobs. But the structure of the protein is also extremely crucial in determining its function. Jacquelyn Fetrow of the California-based Scripps Research Institute and her colleagues can now forecast a protein's function more accurately by guessing its three dimensional structure. They use a software that predicts which of the known 300 proteins shapes the unknown protein can fold into, and assume the actual structure is the most stable of these. The research then pick amino acids that play important roles in other proteins, and decide where on this structure they lie. This reveals active sites, giving a good indication of what the proteins do ( Journal of Molecular Biology , Vol 282, p 703).
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