A robust and efficient automated docking algorithm for molecular recognition

A completely automated method is described for determining the most likely mode of binding of two (macro)molecules from the knowledge of their three-dimensional structures alone. The method is based on well-known graph theoretical techniques and has been used successfully to determine and rationalize the binding of a number of known macromolecular complexes. In this article we present results for a special case of the general molecular recognition problem--given the information concerning the particular atoms involved in the binding for one of the molecules, the algorithm can correctly identify the corresponding (contacting) atoms of the other molecule. The approach used can be easily extended to the general molecular recognition problem and requires the extraction of maximal common subgraphs. In these studies the docking of the macromolecules was achieved without the aid of computer graphics or other visual aids. The algorithm has been used to determine the correct mode of binding of a protein antigen to an antibody in approximately 100 min on a DEC micro VAX 3600.