FELLS: Fast estimator of latent local structure

Abstract

Motivation: The behavior of a protein is encoded in its sequence, which can be used to predict distinct features such as secondary structure, intrinsic disorder or amphipathicity. Integrating these and other features can help explain the context-dependent behavior of proteins. However, most tools focus on a single aspect, hampering a holistic understanding of protein structure. Here, we present Fast Estimator of Latent Local Structure (FELLS) to visualize structural features from the protein sequence. FELLS provides disorder, aggregation and low complexity predictions as well as estimated local propensities including amphipathicity. A novel fast estimator of secondary structure (FESS) is also trained to provide a fast response. The calculations required for FELLS are extremely fast and suited for large-scale analysis while providing a detailed analysis of difficult cases. Availability and Implementation: The FELLS web server is available from URL: http://protein.bio.unipd.it/fells/. The server also exposes RESTful functionality allowing programmatic prediction requests. An executable version of FESS for Linux can be downloaded from URL: protein.bio.unipd.it/download/.