NAPS: a residue-level nucleic acid-binding prediction server

Nucleic acid-binding proteins are involved in a great number of cellular processes. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these proteins first requires the identification of specific residues involved in nucleic acid binding. Prediction of NAbinding residues can provide practical assistance in the functional annotation of NA-binding proteins. Predictions can also be used to expedite mutagenesis experiments, guiding researchers to the correct binding residues in these proteins. Here, we present a method for the identification of amino acid residues involved in DNA- and RNA-binding using sequence-based attributes. The method used in this work combines the C4.5 algorithm with bootstrap aggregation and cost-sensitive learning. Our DNA-binding model achieved 79.1% accuracy, while the RNA-binding model reached an accuracy of 73.2%. The NAPS web server is freely available at http://proteomics.bioengr.uic.edu/NAPS.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: NAR
• Authors: Matthew B. Carson, Robert E. Langlois, Hui Lu
• Keywords: Correct Binding Residues, NAR 2010, Nucleic Acid-binding Proteins, Proteins