GPS-SNO: computational prediction of protein S-nitrosylation sites with a modified GPS algorithm

As one of the most important and ubiquitous post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins, S-nitrosylation plays important roles in a variety of biological processes, including the regulation of cellular dynamics and plasticity. Identification of S-nitrosylated substrates with their exact sites is crucial for understanding the molecular mechanisms of S-nitrosylation. In contrast with labor-intensive and time-consuming experimental approaches, prediction of S-nitrosylation sites using computational methods could provide convenience and increased speed. In this work, we developed a novel software of GPS-SNO 1.0 for the prediction of S-nitrosylation sites. We greatly improved our previously developed algorithm and released the GPS 3.0 algorithm for GPS-SNO. By comparison, the prediction performance of GPS 3.0 algorithm was better than other methods, with an accuracy of 75.80%, a sensitivity of 53.57% and a specificity of 80.14%. As an application of GPS-SNO 1.0, we predicted putative S-nitrosylation sites for hundreds of potentially S-nitrosylated substrates for which the exact S-nitrosylation sites had not been experimentally determined. In this regard, GPS-SNO 1.0 should prove to be a useful tool for experimentalists. The online service and local packages of GPS-SNO were implemented in JAVA and are freely available at: http://sno.biocuckoo.org/.