Comparing programs for rigid-body multiple structural superposition of proteins

Different programs and methods were employed to superimpose protein structures, using members of four very different protein families as test subjects, and the results of these efforts were compared. Algorithms based on human identification of key amino acid residues on which to base the superpositions were nearly always more successful than programs that used automated techniques to identify key residues. Among those programs automatically identifying key residues, MASS could not superimpose all members of some families, but was very efficient with other families. MODELLER, MultiProt, and STAMP had varying levels of success. A genetic algorithm program written for this project did not improve superpositions when results from neighbor-joining and pseudostar algorithms were used as its starting cases, but it always improved superpositions obained by MODELLER and STAMP. A program entitled PyMSS is presented that includes three superposition algorithms featuring human interaction.