HOMSTRAD: A database of protein structure alignments for homologous families

We describe a database of protein structure alignments for homologous families. The database HOMSTRAD presently contains 130 protein families and 590 aligned structures, which have been selected on the basis of quality of the X-ray analysis and accuracy of the structure. For each family, the database provides a structure-based alignment derived using COMPARER and annotated with JOY in a special format that represents the local structural environment of each amino acid residue. HOMSTRAD also provides a set of superposed atomic coordinates obtained using MNYFIT which can be viewed with a graphical user interface or used for comparative modeling studies. The database is freely available on the World Wide Web at: http://www-cryst.bioc.cam. ac.uk/similar to homstrad/, with search facilities and links to other databases.