Comparison of the predictive abilities of different methods based on information theory: searching for...

A comparison of a new method of searching for functionally important sites in proteins and peptide hormones with a previously published method is presented. All methods are based on information theory that holds that rare oligomers contain much information and, thus, are likely to be important for specific functional activity. Twenty-five proteins and peptide hormones with known receptor-binding sites were studied; the new method showed good predictive ability. However, taking into account short-range sequential preferences in protein structures, the predictive ability of methods based on information theory, at least for the receptor-binding site predictions, was not greatly improved.