A Simple Way to Identify Functional Sites in Protein. I. Functional Sites of Trypsin.

Abstract

An attempt is made to identify the functional sites on a primary sequence of trypsin. The process of identification is based on two hypotheses: 1) The regional variance of an amino acid sequence correlates with its function. 2) A functional site lies near the surface of a protein. From the first hypothesis, possible functional sites in a protein are defined. By the second hypothesis, a functional site near the surface is defined as an exposed functional site. Further specification of functional sites is made from a consideration on an issue “how a functional system is constructed from a couple of functional sites.” It is found that the active sites of trypsin that are already known by biochemical experiments are located near or in the functional sites derived from the estimation.