Assessment of predictions submitted for the CASP6 comparative modeling category

Here we present a full overview of the Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP6) comparative modeling category. Prediction accuracy for the 43 comparative modeling targets was assessed through detailed numerical comparisons between predicted and experimental structures. Assessments using standard measures for model backbone quality and structural alignment accuracy highlighted a small number of groups with stand out predictions and these findings were backed up by statistical comparisons. We were able to carry out evaluations of side-chain contacts predictions and side-chain rotamer accuracy, for which one group turned out to have statistically better predictions. We also assessed the prediction quality of structurally divergent regions and biologically important sites. Interestingly we were able to show that predictors were not predicting these important functional regions with any greater accuracy than the rest of the structure. In addition we investigated the ability of predictors to build models that improve on the structural template and reached some tentative conclusions from comparisons with the previous CASP experiment.