Abstract
BACKGROUND: Knowledge of protein motions is significant to understand its functions. While currently available databases for protein motions are mostly focused on overall domain motions, little attention is paid on local residue motions. Albeit with relatively small scale, the local residue motions, especially those residues in binding pockets, may play crucial roles in protein functioning and ligands binding. RESULTS: A comprehensive protein motion database, namely D3PM, was constructed in this study to facilitate the analysis of protein motions. The protein motions in the D3PM range from overall structural changes of macromolecule to local flip motions of binding pocket residues. Currently, the D3PM has collected 7679 proteins with overall motions and 3513 proteins with pocket residue motions. The motion patterns are classified into 4 types of overall structural changes and 5 types of pocket residue motions. Impressively, we found that less than 15% of protein pairs have obvious overall conformational adaptations induced by ligand binding, while more than 50% of protein pairs have significant structural changes in ligand binding sites, indicating that ligand-induced conformational changes are drastic and mainly confined around ligand binding sites. Based on the residue preference in binding pocket, we classified amino acids into "pocketphilic" and "pocketphobic" residues, which should be helpful for pocket prediction and drug design. CONCLUSION: D3PM is a comprehensive database about protein motions ranging from residue to domain, which should be useful for exploring diverse protein motions and for understanding protein function and drug design. The D3PM is available on www.d3pharma.com/D3PM/index.php .