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B Rost

Publications and source records attributed to B Rost.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Transmembrane helices predicted at 95% accuracy.

We describe a neural network system that predicts the locations of transmembrane helices in integral membrane proteins. By using evolutionary information as input to the network system, the method significantly improved on a previously published neural network prediction method that had been based on single sequence information. The input data were derived from multiple alignments for each position in a window of 13 adjacent residues: amino acid frequency, conservation weights, number of insertions and deletions, and position of the window with respect to the ends of the protein chain. Additional input was the amino acid composition and length of the whole protein. A rigorous cross-validation test on 69 proteins with experimentally determined locations of transmembrane segments yielded an overall two-state per-residue accuracy of 95%. About 94% of all segments were predicted correctly. When applied to known globular proteins as a negative control, the network system incorrectly predicted fewer than 5% of globular proteins as having transmembrane helices. The method was applied to all 269 open reading frames from the complete yeast VIII chromosome. For 59 of these, at least two transmembrane helices were predicted. Thus, the prediction is that about one-fourth of all proteins from yeast VIII contain one transmembrane helix, and some 20%, more than one.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1995

TOPITS: threading one-dimensional predictions into three-dimensional structures.

Homology modelling, currently, is the only theoretical tool which can successfully predict protein 3D structure. As 3D structure is conserved in sequence families, homology modelling allows to predict 3D structure for 20% of SWISSPROT. 20% of the proteins in PDB are remote homologues to another PDB protein. Threading techniques attempt to predict such remote homologues based on sequence information. Here, a new threading method is presented. First, for a list of PDB proteins, 3D structure was projected onto 1D strings of secondary structure and relative solvent accessibility. Then, secondary structure and accessibility were predicted by neural network systems (PHD). Finally, the predicted and observed 1D strings were aligned by dynamic programming. The resulting alignment was used to detect remote 3D homologues. Four results stand out. Firstly, even for an optimal prediction (assignment based on known structure), only about half the hits that ranked above a given threshold were correctly identified as remote homologues; only about 25% of the first hits were correct. Secondly, real predictions (PHD) were not much worse: about 20% of the first hits were correct. Thirdly, a simple filtering procedure improved prediction performance to about 30% correct first hits. The correct hit ranked among the first three for more than 23 out of 46 cases. Fourthly, the combination of the 1D threading and sequence alignments markedly improved the performance of the threading method TOPITS for some selected cases.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1994

Combining evolutionary information and neural networks to predict protein secondary structure.

Using evolutionary information contained in multiple sequence alignments as input to neural networks, secondary structure can be predicted at significantly increased accuracy. Here, we extend our previous three-level system of neural networks by using additional input information derived from multiple alignments. Using a position-specific conservation weight as part of the input increases performance. Using the number of insertions and deletions reduces the tendency for overprediction and increases overall accuracy. Addition of the global amino acid content yields a further improvement, mainly in predicting structural class. The final network system has sustained overall accuracy of 71.6% in a multiple cross-validation test on 126 unique protein chains. A test on a new set of 124 recently solved protein structures that have no significant sequence similarity to the learning set confirms the high level of accuracy. The average cross-validated accuracy for all 250 sequence-unique chains is above 72%. Using various data sets, the method is compared to alternative prediction methods, some of which also use multiple alignments: the performance advantage of the network system is at least 6 percentage points in three-state accuracy. In addition, the network estimates secondary structure content from multiple sequence alignments about as well as circular dichroism spectroscopy on a single protein and classifies 75% of the 250 proteins correctly into one of four protein structural classes. Of particular practical importance is the definition of a position-specific reliability index. For 40% of all residues the method has a sustained three-state accuracy of 88%, as high as the overall average for homology modelling. A further strength of the method is greatly increased accuracy in predicting the placement of secondary structure segments.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1994

Conservation and prediction of solvent accessibility in protein families.

Currently, the prediction of three-dimensional (3D) protein structure from sequence alone is an exceedingly difficult task. As an intermediate step, a much simpler task has been pursued extensively: predicting 1D strings of secondary structure. Here, we present an analysis of another 1D projection from 3D structure: the relative solvent accessibility of each residue. We show that solvent accessibility is less conserved in 3D homologues than is secondary structure, and hence is predicted less accurately from automatic homology modeling; the correlation coefficient of relative solvent accessibility between 3D homologues is only 0.77, and the average accuracy of predictions based on sequence alignments is only 0.68. The latter number provides an effective upper limit on the accuracy of predicting accessibility from sequence when homology modeling is not possible. We introduce a neural network system that predicts relative solvent accessibility (projected onto ten discrete states) using evolutionary profiles of amino acid substitutions derived from multiple sequence alignments. Evaluated in a cross-validation test on 238 unique proteins, the correlation between predicted and observed relative accessibility is 0.54. Interpreted in terms of a three-state (buried, intermediate, exposed) description of relative accessibility, the fraction of correctly predicted residue states is about 58%. In absolute terms this accuracy appears poor, but given the relatively low conservation of accessibility in 3D families, the network system is not far from its likely optimal performance. The most reliably predicted fraction of the residues (50%) is predicted as accurately as by automatic homology modeling. Prediction is best for buried residues, e.g., 86% of the completely buried sites are correctly predicted as having 0% relative accessibility.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed1994

Structure prediction of proteins--where are we now?

Although the 'structure from sequence' prediction problem remains fundamentally unsolved, new and promising methods in one, two and three dimensions have reopened the field. Significantly improved one-dimensional prediction of secondary structure from multiple sequence alignments is now in routine use. In the two-dimensional approach, inter-residue contacts can be detected by analysis of correlated mutations, albeit with low accuracy. Finally, three-dimensional methods, in which pseudopotentials or information values are derived from the databases, are proving their value for distinguishing between correct and incorrect models.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

[Need for control and anxiety of losing it--reflections on the treatment of anorexia nervosa].

In connection with the symptoms of anorexia nervosa, which are usually based on a fear of losing control over food intake, we describe a therapeutic approach with the following important aims: To reduce patient's fear of loss of control, to free parents from controlling the food intake of their daughter and to establish a framework that provides a good climate for effective family-oriented or individual psychotherapy or both. In patients with anorexia that began early, we recommend starting with family therapy. This can be followed by individual psychotherapy, which is in fact often requested by the patients themselves.

Adolescent↗