Comparisons of protein structures

The structures of proteins related by evolution are remarkably alike even when the observed sequence similarities are statistically marginal or seemingly non-existent. Similar protein substructures are found in proteins for which there is no evidence of common ancestry and no similarity in their global topology. Recent advances in the comparison of whole proteins, together with the comparison and analysis of their parts, have paved the way for the use of structural information in prediction and modelling, protein engineering, structure and sequence alignments, and investigations of protein evolution, among a host of other applications.