Abstract Comparative docking is based on experimentally determined structures of protein‐protein complexes (templates), following the paradigm that proteins with similar sequences and/or structures form similar complexes. Modeling utilizing structure similarity of target monomers to template complexes significantly expands structural coverage of the interactome. Template‐based docking by structure alignment can be performed for the entire structures or by aligning targets to the bound interfaces of the experimentally determined complexes. Systematic benchmarking of docking protocols based on full and interface structure alignment showed that both protocols perform similarly, with top 1 docking success rate 26%. However, in terms of the models' quality, the interface‐based docking performed marginally better. The interface‐based docking is preferable when one would suspect a significant conformational change in the full protein structure upon binding, for example, a rearrangement of the domains in multidomain proteins. Importantly, if the same structure is selected as the top template by both full and interface alignment, the docking success rate increases 2‐fold for both top 1 and top 10 predictions. Matching structural annotations of the target and template proteins for template detection, as a computationally less expensive alternative to structural alignment, did not improve the docking performance. Sophisticated remote sequence homology detection added templates to the pool of those identified by structure‐based alignment, suggesting that for practical docking, the combination of the structure alignment protocols and the remote sequence homology detection may be useful in order to avoid potential flaws in generation of the structural templates library.
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Application of docking methodologies to modeled proteins
Abstract Protein docking is essential for structural characterization of protein interactions. Besides providing the structure of protein complexes, modeling of proteins and their complexes is important for understanding the fundamental principles and specific aspects of protein interactions. The accuracy of protein modeling, in general, is still less than that of the experimental approaches. Thus, it is important to investigate the applicability of docking techniques to modeled proteins. We present new comprehensive benchmark sets of protein models for the development and validation of protein docking, as well as a systematic assessment of free and template‐based docking techniques on these sets. As opposed to previous studies, the benchmark sets reflect the real case modeling/docking scenario where the accuracy of the models is assessed by the modeling procedure, without reference to the native structure (which would be unknown in practical applications). We also expanded the analysis to include docking of protein pairs where proteins have different structural accuracy. The results show that, in general, the template‐based docking is less sensitive to the structural inaccuracies of the models than the free docking. The near‐native docking poses generated by the template‐based approach, typically, also have higher ranks than those produces by the free docking (although the free docking is indispensable in modeling the multiplicity of protein interactions in a crowded cellular environment). The results show that docking techniques are applicable to protein models in a broad range of modeling accuracy. The study provides clear guidelines for practical applications of docking to protein models.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1917263
- PAR ID:
- 10456588
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics
- Volume:
- 88
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 0887-3585
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1180-1188
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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