G Protein-Coupled Receptors - Modeling and Simulation

Makiko Suwa, Suwa, Makiko

The automatic classification of GPCRs by bioinformatics methodology can provide functional information for new GPCRs in the whole 'GPCR proteome' and this information is important for the development of novel drugs. Since GPCR proteome is classified hierarchically, general ways for GPCR function prediction are based on hierarchical classification. Various computational tools have been developed to predict GPCR functions; those tools use not simple sequence searches but more powerful methods, such as alignment-free methods, statistical model methods, and machine learning methods used in protein sequence analysis, based on learning datasets. The first stage of hierarchical function prediction involves the discrimination of GPCRs from non-GPCRs and the second stage involves the classification of the predicted GPCR candidates into family, subfamily, and sub-subfamily levels. Then, further classification is performed according to their protein-protein interaction type: binding G-protein type, oligomerized partner type, etc. Those methods have achieved predictive accuracies of around 90 %. Finally, I described the future subject of research of the bioinformatics technique about functional prediction of GPCR.