A new tool for protein fold recognition: A Bayesian heuristic threading algorithm.

This paper presents a new threading algorithm, designed to be used in protein fold recognition. Its purpose is to contribute toward the goal of predicting three-dimensional structures of proteins from knowledge of their amino-acid sequences alone. Sequences for new proteins are being discovered at a rapid rate, as a result of the Human Genome Project, and related genome research. Understanding of protein folding, and especially the ability to predict the 3D fold from the sequence, is crucial to the understanding of the function of these new proteins. This is considered by many to be the most important problem in contemporary molecular biology. Numerical tests of the speed and reliability of the algorithm are described, along with comparisons with two popular threading algorithms. For the systems examined, the new method constitutes a significant improvement