BEYOND COMPLETE GENOMES - FROM SEQUENCE TO STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

Computer analysis of complete prokaryotic genomes shows that microbial proteins are in general highly conserved - similar to 70% of them con tain ancient conserved regions. This allows us to delineate families o f orthologs across a wide phylogenetic range and, in many cases, predi ct protein functions with considerable precision. Sequence database se arches using newly developed, sensitive algorithms result in the unifi cation of such orthologous families into larger superfamilies sharing common sequence motifs. For many of these superfamilies, prediction of the structural fold and specific amino acid residues involved in enzy matic catalysis is possible. Taken together, sequence and structure co mparisons provide a powerful methodology that can successfully complem ent traditional experimental approaches.