Receptor-Binding Sites: Bioinformatic Approaches

It is increasingly clear that both transient and long-lasting interactions between biomacromolecules and their molecular partners are the most fundamental of all biological mechanisms and lie at the conceptual heart of protein function. In particular, the protein-binding site is the most fascinating and important mechanistic arbiter of protein function. In this review, I examine the nature of protein-binding sites found in both ligand-binding receptors and substrate-binding enzymes. I highlight two important concepts underlying the identification and analysis of binding sites. The first is based on knowledge: when one knows the location of a binding site in one protein, one can “inherit” the site from one protein to another. The second approach involves the a priori prediction of a binding site from a sequence or a structure. The full and complete analysis of binding sites will necessarily involve the full range of informatic techniques ranging from sequence-based bioinformatic analysis through structural bioinformatics to computational chemistry and molecular physics. Integration of both diverse experimental and diverse theoretical approaches is thus a mandatory requirement in the evaluation of binding sites and the binding events that occur within them.