Protein-Sol: a web tool for predicting protein solubility from sequence

Bioinformatics. 2017 Oct 1;33(19):3098-3100. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btx345.

Abstract

Motivation: Protein solubility is an important property in industrial and therapeutic applications. Prediction is a challenge, despite a growing understanding of the relevant physicochemical properties.

Results: Protein-Sol is a web server for predicting protein solubility. Using available data for Escherichia coli protein solubility in a cell-free expression system, 35 sequence-based properties are calculated. Feature weights are determined from separation of low and high solubility subsets. The model returns a predicted solubility and an indication of the features which deviate most from average values. Two other properties are profiled in windowed calculation along the sequence: fold propensity, and net segment charge. The utility of these additional features is demonstrated with the example of thioredoxin.

Availability and implementation: The Protein-Sol webserver is available at http://protein-sol.manchester.ac.uk.

Contact: jim.warwicker@manchester.ac.uk.

MeSH terms

  • Escherichia coli Proteins / chemistry
  • Internet
  • Sequence Analysis, Protein / methods*
  • Software*
  • Solubility
  • Thioredoxins / chemistry

Substances

  • Escherichia coli Proteins
  • Thioredoxins