Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2020;2074:95-112. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9873-9_8.
Many important functions in a cell are carried out by protein complexes with more than two subunits. Similar to the folding of a single protein, multimeric protein complexes in general follow an energetically favored assembly path. Knowing the assembly path not only provides critical information about the molecular mechanism of the assembly but also serves as a foundation for artificial design of protein complexes, as well as development of drugs that interfere with complex formation. There are experimental approaches for determining the assembly path of a complex; however, such methods are resource intensive. We have recently developed a computational method, Path-LZerD, which predicts the assembly path of a complex by simulating the docking process of the complex. Here, we explain how to use the Path-LZerD software with examples.
许多细胞中的重要功能是由多于两个亚基的蛋白质复合物来执行的。类似于单个蛋白质的折叠，多聚体蛋白质复合物通常遵循能量有利的组装路径。了解组装路径不仅提供了关于组装分子机制的关键信息，而且还为人工设计蛋白质复合物以及开发干扰复合物形成的药物奠定了基础。有一些实验方法可用于确定复合物的组装路径；然而，这些方法资源密集。我们最近开发了一种计算方法，Path-LZerD，它通过模拟复合物的对接过程来预测复合物的组装路径。在这里，我们将通过示例解释如何使用 Path-LZerD 软件。
