Other amino acids and metalloproteins
Case number: | 699969-2009604 |
Topic: | General |
Opened by: | BarrySampson |
Status: | Open |
Type: | Suggestion |
Opened on: | Saturday, May 2, 2020 - 16:30 |
Last modified: | Monday, May 4, 2020 - 19:23 |
Hi
I've only just started using this programme and it's really great! However, as a recently retired inorganic biochemist I would love to see selenomethionine and selenocysteine as options. Also, do you have the possibility of handling metalloproteins? I may be biased, but there are many major zinc and iron binding proteins out there!
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In theory, yes, we could support additional amino acids in Foldit.
However, Foldit does not do any atomic orbital calculations (our modeling engine uses simple ball-and-stick molecular mechanics). I think the only difference between SeMET and MET would be a slightly larger atomic radius at the Se position (?), which is unlikely to have a serious effect on Foldit protein models.
We can also model metalloproteins, insofar as we can include a metal ion with the appropriate charge and atomic radius. But, without orbital calculations, we typically have to define the metal coordination geometry by hand.