Challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non-standard compositions

Abstract Methods for scoring matrix adjustment decrease the significance of biased residues to better detect homology between protein sequences. This is because non-homologous proteins often contain fragments with non-standard compositions that are strikingly similar to each other. However, these fr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Patryk Jarnot
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-12-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-82548-8
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841559516416573440
author Patryk Jarnot
author_facet Patryk Jarnot
author_sort Patryk Jarnot
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Methods for scoring matrix adjustment decrease the significance of biased residues to better detect homology between protein sequences. This is because non-homologous proteins often contain fragments with non-standard compositions that are strikingly similar to each other. However, these fragments are also functionally important in proteins and are receiving an increasing attention from the scientific community. In this study, we described why the gold standard method for scoring matrix adjustment is unable to emphasise frequent amino acids. Further, we used BLAST to align collagen-like domains with and without the scoring matrix adjustment and compared the results. We found that the scoring matrices were adjusted in the opposite direction to the optimal state. Therefore, turning off the adjustment improved alignment quality of collagen-like domains, but scoring matrices still need refinement. This study provides a detailed analysis of why the gold standard method fails, and opens doors for new methods to adjust scoring matrices for functional motifs with non-standard compositions.
format Article
id doaj-art-bfd7436e488243339bc033495d24d2f4
institution Kabale University
issn 2045-2322
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series Scientific Reports
spelling doaj-art-bfd7436e488243339bc033495d24d2f42025-01-05T12:26:17ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-12-0114111010.1038/s41598-024-82548-8Challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non-standard compositionsPatryk Jarnot0Department of Computer Networks and Systems, Silesian University of TechnologyAbstract Methods for scoring matrix adjustment decrease the significance of biased residues to better detect homology between protein sequences. This is because non-homologous proteins often contain fragments with non-standard compositions that are strikingly similar to each other. However, these fragments are also functionally important in proteins and are receiving an increasing attention from the scientific community. In this study, we described why the gold standard method for scoring matrix adjustment is unable to emphasise frequent amino acids. Further, we used BLAST to align collagen-like domains with and without the scoring matrix adjustment and compared the results. We found that the scoring matrices were adjusted in the opposite direction to the optimal state. Therefore, turning off the adjustment improved alignment quality of collagen-like domains, but scoring matrices still need refinement. This study provides a detailed analysis of why the gold standard method fails, and opens doors for new methods to adjust scoring matrices for functional motifs with non-standard compositions.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-82548-8Protein sequenceNon-standard compositionsSimilarity searchScoring matrix adjustment
spellingShingle Patryk Jarnot
Challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non-standard compositions
Scientific Reports
Protein sequence
Non-standard compositions
Similarity search
Scoring matrix adjustment
title Challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non-standard compositions
title_full Challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non-standard compositions
title_fullStr Challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non-standard compositions
title_full_unstemmed Challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non-standard compositions
title_short Challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non-standard compositions
title_sort challenges in adjusting scoring matrices when comparing functional motifs with non standard compositions
topic Protein sequence
Non-standard compositions
Similarity search
Scoring matrix adjustment
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-82548-8
work_keys_str_mv AT patrykjarnot challengesinadjustingscoringmatriceswhencomparingfunctionalmotifswithnonstandardcompositions