Protein–Protein and Protein–Peptide Docking with ClusPro Server

Abstract

The process of creating a model of the structure formed by a pair of interacting molecules is commonly referred to as docking. Protein docking is one of the most studied topics in computational and structural biology with applications to drug design and beyond. In this chapter, we describe ClusPro, a web server for protein–protein and protein–peptide docking. As an input, the server requires two Protein Data Bank (PDB) files (protein–protein mode) or a PDB file for the protein and a sequence for the ligand (protein–peptide mode). Its output consists of ten models of the resulting structure formed by the two objects upon interaction. The server typically produces results in less than 4 h. The server also provides tools (via “Advanced Options” list) for a user to fine-tune the results using any additional knowledge about the interaction process, e.g., small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) profile or distance restraints.