PACKING OF PROTEIN STRUCTURES IN CLUSTERS WITH MAGIC NUMBERS

Recently we have proposed a model for folding proteins into packed 'cl usters'. We have constructed a local homology measure for protein fold classes by projecting consecutively secondary structures onto a latti ce. Taking into account hydrophobic forces we have found a mechanism f or formation of clusters containing magic numbers of secondary structu res and multipla of these clusters. A scheme for the relation between the sequence information and the native fold is given. We have perform ed a statistical analysis of available protein structures and found ag reement with the predicted preferred abundances. In this paper we demo nstrate that the results are robust to variations in the coordination number of the model.