This project is investigating applications of dihedral sequence comparison (DISCO) to protein structure comparison and protein folding problems. DISCO transforms atomic coordinates into one-dimensional dihedral sequences, then applies the BioSCAN sequence alignment computer to find segments with similar three-dimensional folds. The goals of the DISCO project include: (1) exploring new algorithms and representations of the three-dimensional structures of folded proteins by one-dimensional sequences; (2) exploring the use of the BioSCAN system to compare these sequences; (3) developing statistically-based scores for measuring the structural similarity of folded protein segments by comparing their dihedral sequences; (4) developing a robust computational system based on BioSCAN for protein structure analysis; and (5) making the DISCO system available over the Internet to the scientific community.
