Phosfinder: a web server for the identification of phosphate-binding sites on protein structures

Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jul;39(Web Server issue):W278-82. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkr389. Epub 2011 May 26.

Abstract

Phosfinder is a web server for the identification of phosphate binding sites in protein structures. Phosfinder uses a structural comparison algorithm to scan a query structure against a set of known 3D phosphate binding motifs. Whenever a structural similarity between the query protein and a phosphate binding motif is detected, the phosphate bound by the known motif is added to the protein structure thus representing a putative phosphate binding site. Predicted binding sites are then evaluated according to (i) their position with respect to the query protein solvent-excluded surface and (ii) the conservation of the binding residues in the protein family. The server accepts as input either the PDB code of the protein to be analyzed or a user-submitted structure in PDB format. All the search parameters are user modifiable. Phosfinder outputs a list of predicted binding sites with detailed information about their structural similarity with known phosphate binding motifs, and the conservation of the residues involved. A graphical applet allows the user to visualize the predicted binding sites on the query protein structure. The results on a set of 52 apo/holo structure pairs show that the performance of our method is largely unaffected by ligand-induced conformational changes. Phosfinder is available at http://phosfinder.bio.uniroma2.it.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Binding Sites
  • Internet
  • Models, Molecular
  • Phosphates / chemistry*
  • Protein Conformation*
  • Proteins / chemistry
  • Software*

Substances

  • Phosphates
  • Proteins