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Science 6 December 1985:
Vol. 230. no. 4730, pp. 1163 - 1165
DOI: 10.1126/science.4071040
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Articles

Science, Vol 230, Issue 4730, 1163-1165
Copyright © 1985 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Fractal surfaces of proteins

M Lewis and DC Rees

Fractal surfaces can be used to characterize the roughness or irregularity of protein surfaces. The degree of irregularity of a surface may be described by the fractal dimension D. For protein surfaces defined with probes in the range of 1.0 to 3.5 angstroms in radius, D is approximately 2.4 or intermediate between the value for a completely smooth surface (D = 2) and that for a completely space-filling surface (D = 3). Individual regions of proteins show considerable variation in D. These variations may be related to structural features such as active sites and subunit interfaces, suggesting that surface texture may be a factor influencing molecular interactions.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Nucleic Acids Res. 33, 244-259
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Predicting protein function from structure: Unique structural features of proteases.
E. W. Stawiski, A. E. Baucom, S. C. Lohr, and L. M. Gregoret (2000)
PNAS 97, 3954-3958
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