An efficient nearest neighbor method for protein contact prediction

Abstract

A variety of approaches for protein inter-residue contact prediction have been developed in recent years. However, this problem is far from being solved yet. In this article, we present an efficient nearest neighbor (NN) approach, called PKK-PCP, and an application for the protein inter-residue contact prediction. The great strength of using this approach is its adaptability to that problem. Furthermore, our method improves considerably the efficiency with regard to other NN approaches. Our NN-based method combines parallel execution with k-d tree as search algorithm. The input data used by our algorithm is based on structural features and physico-chemical properties of amino acids besides of evolutionary information. Results obtained show better efficiency rates, in terms of time and memory consumption, than other similar approaches.