ConSeq: the identification of functionally and structurally important residues in protein sequences.

Abstract

ConSeq is a web server for the identification of biologically important residues in protein sequences. Functionally important residues that take part, e.g. in ligand binding and protein-protein interactions, are often evolutionarily conserved and are most likely to be solvent-accessible, whereas conserved residues within the protein core most probably have an important structural role in maintaining the protein's fold. Thus, estimated evolutionary rates, as well as relative solvent accessibility predictions, are assigned to each amino acid in the sequence; both are subsequently used to indicate residues that have potential structural or functional importance. The ConSeq web server is available at http://conseq.bioinfo.tau.ac.il/ The ConSeq methodology, a description of its performance in a set of five well-documented proteins, a comparison to other methods, and the outcome of its application to a set of 111 proteins of unknown function, are presented at http://conseq.bioinfo.tau.ac.il/ under 'OVERVIEW', 'VALIDATION', 'COMPARISON' and 'PREDICTIONS', respectively.