Determination of the correspondence between mobility (rigidity) and conservation of the interface residues

Abstract

Hot spots at protein interfaces may play specific functional roles and contribute to the stability of the protein complex. These residues are not homogeneously distributed along the protein interfaces; rather they are clustered within locally tightly packed regions forming a network of interactions among themselves. Here, we investigate the organization of computational hot spots at protein interfaces. A list of proteins whose free and bound forms exist is examined. Inter-residue distances of the interface residues are compared for both forms. Results reveal that there exist rigid block regions at protein interfaces. More interestingly, these regions correspond to computational hot regions. Hot spots can be determined with an average positive predictive value (PPV) of 0.73 and average sensitivity value of 0.70 for seven protein complexes.