Patterns in protein primary sequences: classification, display and analysis

The protein folding code, which is contained in the amino acid chain of a protein, has so far eluded elucidation. However, patterns of hydrophobic residues have previously been identified which show a specificity towards certain secondary structural elements. We are developing an analysis toolkit to find, visualize, and analyze patterns in primary sequences. Preliminary results show that there exist patterns in primary sequences which are useful for predicting the structural class of amino acid chains, performing especially well for the all-alpha helix and all-beta sheet classes.