TY - JOUR T1 - Structural genomics and its importance for gene function analysis JF - Nature Biotechnology Y1 - 2000 A1 - Jeffrey Skolnick A1 - Jacquelyn S. Fetrow A1 - Andrzej KoliƄski KW - Animals KW - Computer Simulation KW - Databases KW - Evolution KW - Factual KW - Genome KW - Humans KW - Internet KW - Molecular KW - Molecular Biology KW - Molecular Biology: methods KW - Protein Folding KW - Structure-Activity Relationship AB - Structural genomics projects aim to solve the experimental structures of all possible protein folds. Such projects entail a conceptual shift from traditional structural biology in which structural information is obtained on known proteins to one in which the structure of a protein is determined first and the function assigned only later. Whereas the goal of converting protein structure into function can be accomplished by traditional sequence motif-based approaches, recent studies have shown that assignment of a protein's biochemical function can also be achieved by scanning its structure for a match to the geometry and chemical identity of a known active site. Importantly, this approach can use low-resolution structures provided by contemporary structure prediction methods. When applied to genomes, structural information (either experimental or predicted) is likely to play an important role in high-throughput function assignment. VL - 18 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10700142 ER -