Combining Multiple Pairwise Structure-based Alignments

Abstract

CombAlign is a new Python code that generates a gapped, one-to-many, multiple structure-based sequence alignment(MSSA) given a set of pairwise structure-based alignments. In order to better define regions of similarity among related protein structures, it is useful to detect the residue-residue correspondences among a set of pairwise structure alignments. Few codes exist for constructing a one-to-many, multiple sequence alignment derived from a set of structure alignments, and we perceived a need for creating a new tool for combing pairwise structure alignments that would allow for insertion of gaps in the reference structure.