Title
Isolating influential regions of electrostatic focusing in protein and DNA structure.
Abstract
Electrostatic focusing is a general phenomenon that occurs in cavities and grooves on the molecular surface of biomolecules. Narrow surface features can partially shield charged atoms from the high-dielectric solvent, enhancing electrostatic potentials inside the cavity and projecting electric field lines outward into the solvent. This effect has been observed in many instances and is widely considered in the human examination of molecular structure, but it is rarely integrated into the digital representations used in protein structure comparison software. To create a computational representation of electrostatic focusing, that is compatible with structure comparison algorithms, this paper presents an approach that generates three-dimensional solids that approximate regions where focusing occurs. We verify the accuracy of this representation against instances of focusing in proteins and DNA. Noting that this representation also identifies thin focusing regions on the molecular surface that are unlikely to affect binding, we describe a second algorithm that conservatively isolates larger focusing regions. The resulting 3D solids can be compared with Boolean set operations, permitting a new range of analyses on the regions where electrostatic focusing occurs. They also represent a novel integration of molecular shape and electrostatic focusing into the same structure comparison framework.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1109/TCBB.2013.124
IEEE/ACM Trans. Comput. Biology Bioinform.
Keywords
Field
DocType
Boolean functions,DNA,bioelectric potentials,bioinformatics,biological effects of fields,biomolecular effects of radiation,molecular configurations,proteins,Boolean set operations,DNA structure,biomolecules,electrostatic focusing,electrostatic potentials,high-dielectric solvent,influential region isolation,molecular shape,protein structure,structure comparison algorithms,three-dimensional solids,Electrostatic focusing,constructive solid geometry,protein structure comparison,structural bioinformatics
Electrostatics,Boolean function,Structural bioinformatics,Lattice (order),Computer science,Field line,Atom,Constructive solid geometry,Electric potential,Bioinformatics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
10
5
1557-9964
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
5
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Seth Blumenthal100.34
Yisheng Tang200.34
Wenjie Yang3328.55
Brian Chen428939.05