Protein 3D Structure Knowledge
A resource within ProteinExplorer.Org.
  1. How are 3D macromolecular structures obtained?
    1. Accurate: 83% by X-ray crystallography, 15% by NMR
    2. Rough: Comparative modeling, but templates available for only ~20% of domains.
    3. Ab initio theory does not predict tertiary structure accurately enough for most purposes.

  2. What percentage of the human proteome has known structure?
    1. ~2% accurately (empirical).
    2. ~20% roughly (comparative modeling).
    3. Solution: Structural Genomics? (Not in the next few years.)

  3. Some proteins are intrinsically unstructured/natively disordered in order best to support their functions.

This slide by Eric Martz, University of Massachusetts
July 2003 (revised February 2004, October 2004, January 2005, April 2007)