Comparison of two academic software packages for protein structure prediction

Abstract

Protein structure prediction has matured over the past few years to the point that even fully automated methods can provide reasonably accurate three-dimensional models of protein structures. However, until now it has not been possible to develop programs able to perform as well as human experts, who are still capable of systematically producing better models than automated servers. In this paper, we review and compare two recently developed and publicly available software packages, LOMETS and I-TASSER, for predicting protein structure in comparison with the commercial software package (Hyper Chem Release 8.0). These two software packages share some common features and also have some fundamental difference. Based on our experience, I-TASSER is more accurate in predicting protein structure. In contrast, LOMETS shows less performance than I-TASSER. © 2014 SERSC.