This paper is concerned with the development of a computational methodology based on fractal geometry for determining 3D structure of protein with imagery projection operations. In this investigation, the density-map image is a 2D projection of the 3D electron density map according to its depth of the density distribution along the projection direction. We extract fractal features of the density-map image in a region and use these features to look for candidate regions with similar patterns of density-map. We analyze its fractal signatures for determining 3D pattern of regions of density distribution. This contribution presents preliminary results of such a study, wherein the protein surface was assumed to be a fractal, and computed fractal feature (fractal dimension and fractal signature) were analyzed and found to possess fairly reasonable pattern for improving the discrimination abilities of the protein structure.
Yu Tao, Thomas R. Ioerger, James C. Sacchettini