FAMS complex: a fully automated homology modeling system for protein complex structures

The formation of a protein-protein complex is responsible for many biological functions; therefore, three-dimensional structures of protein complexes are essential for deeper understandings of protein functions and the mechanisms of diseases at the atomic level. However, compared with individual proteins, complex structures are difficult to solve experimentally because of technical limitations. Thus a method that can predict protein complex structures would be invaluable. In this study, we developed new software, FAMS Complex; a fully automated homology modeling system for protein complex structures consisting of two or more molecules. FAMS Complex requires only sequences and alignments of the target protein as input and constructs all molecules simultaneously and automatically. FAMS Complex is likely to become an essential tool for structure-based drug design, such as in silico screening to accelerate drug discovery before an experimental structure is solved. Moreover, in this post-genomic era when huge amounts of protein sequence information are available, a major goal is the determination of protein-protein interaction networks on a genomic scale. FAMS Complex will contribute to this goal, because its procedure is fully automated and so is suited for large-scale genome wide modeling.