The Role of Bioinformatics in the Discovery of Bioactive Peptides

Abstract

Peptides which trigger biological responses in vivo beyond nutrition are called bioactive peptides. The peptides have been shown to trigger physiologic responses that are important for human health and therefore constitute a growing research area of interest to the functional food and pharmaceutical industries. In order to streamline the production of these peptides, bioinformatics tools have been proposed to be useful for predicting the types, physicochemical characteristics, as well as biological properties of these peptides, before actual wet synthesis is pursued. The role of bioinformatics in the discovery of bioactive peptides is the focus of this article.