Modeling the Tertiary Structure of a Multi-domain Protein: Structure Prediction of Multi-domain Proteins

Abstract

Due to the central role that tertiary structure plays in determining protein function, resolving protein tertiary structures is an integral research thrust in both wet and dry laboratories. Dry laboratories have primarily focused on small- to medium-size proteins. However, proteins central to human biology and human health are often quite complex, containing multiple domains and consisting of thou- sands of amino acids. Such proteins are challenging for various reasons, including the inability to crystallize. We present a case study of structure determination for the Rift Valley fever virus L-protein, a a large, multi-domain protein with currently no available tertiary structure. We employ this case study as an emerging paradigm and demonstrate how to leverage the rich and diverse landscape of bioinformatics tools for building tertiary structure models for multi-domain proteins with thousands of amino acids.