Concerning the number of proteins folds in existence vs. the number of folds already identified:
Ed Berry had some good points regarding sample statistics, and I assume the mathematics of that sort of thing is formalized somewhere. The number of examples per protein fold will be skewed by the common use of molecular replacement for phasing and the tendency of researchers working in one field to solve several related structures. Keep in mind also the mechanism through which new folds have evolved; i.e. through the generation of new genes via duplication, insertion, deletions, point mutations, and the occasional frame shift. That should be enough text to give the impression that I am a serious person with serious ideas, without conveying any actual useful information; so that I now feel justified in changing the topic to a similar question in another field which was published a few years ago, work done by one of those ubiquitous and prolific Dodsons: Estimating the diversity of dinosaurs Steve C. Wang & Peter Dodson PNAS September 12, 2006 vol. 103 no. 37 13601-13605 Published online before print September 5, 2006, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0606028103 http://www.pnas.org/content/103/37/13601.abstract Cheers, - ======================================================================= You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking that you're a fool. - Wonko the Sane ======================================================================= David J. Schuller modern man in a post-modern world MacCHESS, Cornell University schul...@cornell.edu On Thu, 2009-02-26 at 14:19 +0000, ANDY DODDS wrote: > The original poster may be interested in this paper from Phil Bourne's > lab a few years ago which looked at the contribution of folds (among > other things) by the Protein Structure Initiative, particularly Fig 5 > and table 1. > > http://helix-web.stanford.edu/psb04/bourne.pdf > > "The Status of Structural Genomics Defined Through the Analysis of > Current Targets and > Structures" > > P.E. Bourne, C.K.J. Allerston, W. Krebs, W. Li, I.N. Shindyalov, A. > Godzik, I. Friedberg, T. > Liu, D. Wild, S. Hwang, Z. Ghahramani, L. Chen, and J. Westbrook ...
