TAP score: torsion angle propensity normalization applied to local protein structure evaluation

Background: Experimentally determined protein structures may contain errors and require validation. Conformational criteria based on the Ramachandran plot are mainly used to distinguish between distorted and adequately refined models. While the readily available criteria are sufficient to detect totally wrong structures, establishing the more subtle differences between plausible structures remains more challenging. Results: A new criterion, called TAP score, measuring local sequence to structure fitness based on torsion angle propensities normalized against the global minimum and maximum is introduced. It is shown to be more accurate than previous methods at estimating the validity of a protein model in terms of commonly used experimental quality parameters on two test sets representing the full PDB database and a subset of obsolete PDB structures. Highly selective TAP thresholds are derived to recognize over 90% of the top experimental structures in the absence of experimental inform...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Silvio C. E. Tosatto, Roberto Battistutta
• Keywords: BMCBI 2007, Protein, Protein Structures, TAP Score