Structural Perspectives on the Evolutionary Expansion of Unique Protein-Protein Binding Sites.

Structures of protein complexes provide atomistic insights into protein interactions. Human proteins represent a quarter of all structures in the Protein Data Bank; however, available protein complexes cover less than 10% of the human proteome. Although it is theoretically possible to infer interactions in human proteins based on structures of homologous protein complexes, it is still unclear to what extent protein interactions and binding sites are conserved, and whether protein complexes from remotely related species can be used to infer interactions and binding sites.

The fundamental tradeoff in genomes and proteomes of prokaryotes established by the genetic code, codon entropy, and physics of nucleic acids and proteins.

Background: Mutations in nucleotide sequences provide a foundation for genetic variability, and selection is the driving force of the evolution and molecular adaptation. Despite considerable progress in the understanding of selective forces and their compositional determinants, the very nature of underlying mutational biases remains unclear.

Results: We explore here a fundamental tradeoff, which analytically describes mutual adjustment of the nucleotide and amino acid compositions and its possible effect on the mutational biases.

Coverage of protein domain families with structural protein-protein interactions: current progress and future trends.

Protein interactions have evolved into highly precise and regulated networks adding an immense layer of complexity to cellular systems. The most accurate atomistic description of protein binding sites can be obtained directly from structures of protein complexes. The availability of structurally characterized protein interfaces significantly improves our understanding of interactomes, and the progress in structural characterization of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) can be measured by calculating the structural coverage of protein domain families.