Web Tools for Predicting Metal Binding Sites in Proteins

Approximately one third of proteins bind metal ions for stability and/or enzymatic function. However, on a structural level, only a small fraction of binding sites have been resolved. Metal binding site predictions can serve as a first step in putative function assignment for many unannotated proteins. Sequence based and structure based methods for metal binding site predictions are reviewed here. The CHED and SeqCHED methods of prediction from apo protein structures and translated gene sequences, respectively, are described in detail, including their web server applications. The relevance of SeqCHED to the analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with disease related metal binding sites is illustrated.