PreprintCited by 122Protein Structure and DynamicsEnzyme Structure and FunctionMachine Learning in Bioinformatics

A structural biology community assessment of AlphaFold 2 applications

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Akdel, Mehmet, Pires, Douglas E V, Porta Pardo, Eduard, Jänes, Jürgen, Zalevsky, Arthur O, Mészáros, Bálint, Bryant, Patrick, Good, Lydia L. +23 more·2021·bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Abstract

Abstract Most proteins fold into 3D structures that determine how they function and orchestrate the biological processes of the cell. Recent developments in computational methods have led to protein structure predictions that have reached the accuracy of experimentally determined models. While this has been independently verified, the implementation of these methods across structural biology applications remains to be tested. Here, we evaluate the use of AlphaFold 2 (AF2) predictions in the study of characteristic structural elements; the impact of missense variants; function and ligand binding site predictions; modelling of interactions; and modelling of experimental structural data. For 11 proteomes, an average of 25% additional residues can be confidently modelled when compared to homology modelling, identifying structural features rarely seen in the PDB. AF2-based predictions of protein disorder and protein complexes surpass state-of-the-art tools and AF2 models can be used across diverse applications equally well compared to experimentally determined structures, when the confidence metrics are critically considered. In summary, we find that these advances are likely to have a transformative impact in structural biology and broader life science research.

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  • AF2, despite its accuracy, likely does not learn the energy landscapes underpinning protein folding and function.

    “Several preprints have provided evidence that AF2, despite its accuracy, likely does not learn the energy landscapes underpinning protein folding and function (Saldaño et al., 2021; Pak et al., 2021; Akdel et al., 2021).”
  • AlphaFold and RoseTTAfold have demonstrated unprecedented accuracy in predicting structures of monomeric proteins.

    “However, AlphaFold and RoseTTAfold have recently demonstrated unprecedented accuracy in predicting structures of monomeric proteins (27,28,(61)(62)(63)(64)(65)(66) and complexes (35,62,67,68).”

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Authors
Akdel, M., Pires, D. E. V., Porta Pardo, E., Jänes, J., Zalevsky, A. O., Mészáros, B., Bryant, P., Good, L. L., Laskowski, R. A., Pozzati, G., Shenoy, A., Zhu, W., Kundrotas, P., Ruiz Serra, V., Rodrigues, C. H. M., Dunham, A. S., Burke, D., Borkakoti, N., Velankar, S., Frost, A., Lindorff-Larsen, K., Valencia, A., Ovchinnikov, S., Durairaj, J., Ascher, D. B., Thornton, J. M., Davey, N. E., Stein, A., Elofsson, A., Croll, T. I., & Beltrao, P.
Affiliations
  • Wageningen University & Research (NL)
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
  • European Bioinformatics Institute (GB)
  • Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
  • European Molecular Biology Laboratory (DE)
  • Science for Life Laboratory (SE)
  • University of Copenhagen (DK)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • Barcelona Supercomputing Center (ES)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • University of Basel (CH)
  • Institute of Cancer Research (GB)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
Corresponding author
  • Valencia, Alfonso
  • Ovchinnikov, Sergey
  • Durairaj, Janani
  • Ascher, David B
  • Thornton, Janet M
  • Davey, Norman E
  • Stein, Amelie
  • Elofsson, Arne
  • Croll, Tristan I
Venue
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Publisher
openRxiv
Published
2021-09-26
OpenAlex
W3204490060
Cited by
122
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 68 · 2021: 4
Type
posted content
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Apollo (cc-by)
  • Apollo
  • ETH Zürich Research Collection (cc-by)
  • ETH Zürich Research Collection
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (2032259)
  • Simons Foundation (735929LPI)
  • Wellcome Trust
  • Swedish e-Science Research Centre
  • European Commission (HORIZON2020, 842490)
  • Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
  • Lundbeckfonden (R272-2017-4528)
  • Novo Nordisk
  • Vetenskapsrådet (2016-06301, Berzelius-2021-29)
  • State Government of Victoria
  • Russian Science Foundation (20-14-00121)
  • Novo Nordisk Fonden (NNF18OC0033950)
  • ETH Zürich Foundation
  • H. Lundbeck A/S
  • Helmut Horten Stiftung
  • National Institutes of Health (DP5OD026389)
  • Medical Research Council
  • National Health and Medical Research Council (1174405)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Enzyme Structure and Function
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Machine Learning in Bioinformatics
Keywords
AlphaFold2, protein structure prediction, protein disorder prediction, ligand binding site prediction, confidence measures, proteome

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