PREDICTING LOCAL STRUCTURAL-CHANGES THAT RESULT FROM POINT MUTATIONS

Point mutations are frequently used to explore the structure and/or fu nction of proteins. The ability to predict the structural effects of p oint mutations would make the planning of such experiments more reliab le. We have now derived a set of detailed predictive rules based on th e comparison of crystal structures of point mutants and wild types in 83 cases. Despite the surprising simplicity of these rules, they descr ibe well the conformational changes in 85% of all point mutant structu res available at present.