Cited by 37Protein Structure and DynamicsMachine Learning in BioinformaticsComputational Drug Discovery Methods

Protein p K a Prediction by Tree-Based Machine Learning

Open access
Chen, Ada Y., Lee, Juyong, Damjanovic, Ana, Brooks, Bernard R.·2022·Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Protonation states of ionizable protein residues modulate many essential biological processes. For correct modeling and understanding of these processes, it is crucial to accurately determine their p K a values. Here, we present four tree-based machine learning models for protein p K a prediction. The four models, Random Forest, Extra Trees, eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM), were trained on three experimental PDB and p K a datasets, two of which included a notable portion of internal residues. We observed similar performance among the four machine learning algorithms. The best model trained on the largest dataset performs 37% better than the widely used empirical p K a prediction tool PROPKA and 15% better than the published result from the p K a prediction method DelPhiPKa. The overall root-mean-square error (RMSE) for this model is 0.69, with surface and buried RMSE values being 0.56 and 0.78, respectively, considering six residue types (Asp, Glu, His, Lys, Cys, and Tyr), and 0.63 when considering Asp, Glu, His, and Lys only. We provide p K a predictions for proteins in human proteome from the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database and observed that 1% of Asp/Glu/Lys residues have highly shifted p K a values close to the physiological pH.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c01257

Cites

131 of 131 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 134 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Chen, A. Y., Lee, J., Damjanovic, A., & Brooks, B. R.
Affiliations
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • Kangwon National University (KR)
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Lee, Juyong
  • Damjanovic, Ana
Venue
Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
Published
2022-03-15
Volume
18
Issue
4
Pages
2673-2686
ISSN
  • 1549-9618 (ISSN-L)
  • 1549-9626
OpenAlex
W4220734384
Cited by
37
References
134
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1
FWCI
2.37
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation (publishedVersion)
  • ChemRxiv (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea (2018R1C1B600543513, 2019M3E5D4066897, 2019M3E5D4066898, 2020R1F1A1075998)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (75N92019P00048, 75N92020P00042, ZIA HL001051)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Machine Learning in Bioinformatics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computational Theory and Mathematics › Computational Drug Discovery Methods
Keywords
protonation states, ionizable residues, tree-based machine learning, random forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, extra trees, buried residues, human proteome, AlphaFold structures
MeSH terms
Machine Learning, Algorithms, Humans, Kinetics, Proteins

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review