The LCD-Composer webserver: high-specificity identification and functional analysis of low-complexity domains in proteins.

Abstract

Low-complexity domains (LCDs) in proteins are regions enriched in a small subset of amino acids. LCDs exist in all domains of life, often have unusual biophysical behavior, and function in both normal and pathological processes. We recently developed an algorithm to identify LCDs based predominantly on amino acid composition thresholds. Here, we have integrated this algorithm with a webserver and augmented it with additional analysis options. Specifically, users can (i) search for LCDs in whole proteomes by setting minimum composition thresholds for individual or grouped amino acids, (ii) submit a known LCD sequence to search for similar LCDs, (iii) search for and plot LCDs within a single protein, (iv) statistically test for enrichment of LCDs within a user-provided protein set and (v) specifically identify proteins with multiple types of LCDs. The LCD-Composer server can be accessed at http://lcd-composer.bmb.colostate.edu. The corresponding command-line scripts can be accessed at https://github.com/RossLabCSU/LCD-Composer/tree/master/WebserverScripts.