Membrane positioning for high- and low-resolution protein structures through a binary classification approach

Abstract

The critical importance of algorithms for orienting proteins in the lipid bilayer stems from the extreme difficulty in obtaining experimental data about the membrane boundaries. Here, we present a computational method for positioning protein structures in the membrane, based on the sole alpha carbon coordinates and, therefore, compatible with both high and low structural resolutions. Our algorithm follows a new and simple approach, by treating the membrane assignment problem as a binary classification. Compared with the state-of-the-art algorithms, our method achieves similar accuracy, while being faster. Finally, our open-source software is also capable of processing coarse-grained models of protein structures.

Keywords: binary classification; coarse-grained models; lipid bilayer assignment; low-resolution structures; membrane proteins.