Structure is most valuable in elucidating function of an otherwise uncharacterized protein, when it reveals that two proteins are distant evolutionary relatives.

- Because the two proteins came from a single ancestor, it is likely that they retain some similarity in function.

- Moreover, the structure may provide the information necessary to evaluate whether the functional site characteristics are indeed conserved.

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The Rosetta Stone was used by scholars to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics using "homology" with the Demotic and Greek languages.

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Can protein 3D structures be used like the Rosetta Stone to decode the functions of genes identified in the various genome projects?

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Structural Genomics

 

Structural genomics projects are being driven by two fundamentally antithetical goals.

 

- to yield a complete representative set of protein folds.

- to provide insights into the function of genome-encoded proteins, principally by recognizing homology between two structures with the same fold, but whose similarity could not be detected by sequence analysis.

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