Predicting the biologically active conformations of short polypeptides

Abstract

In general, the smaller a polypeptide is, the less well defined its three-dimensional structure. In spite of advances in structure determination, the conformations of short polypeptides, as bound to their receptors, are not always easy to predict. However, much information about polypeptide structure is available from three-dimensional structures of proteins. James Milner-White discusses its relevance to small polypeptides and considers other means of inferring their biologically active conformations, especially for those that form loops and turns.