- Helical wheel
A helical wheel is a type of plot or visual representation used to illustrate the properties of alpha helices in
protein s. The sequence ofamino acid s that make up a helical region of the protein'ssecondary structure are plotted in a rotating manner where the angle of rotation between consecutive amino acids is 100°, so that the final representation looks down the helical axis. The plot reveals whetherhydrophobic amino acids are concentrated on one side of the helix, usually with polar orhydrophilic amino acids on the other. This arrangement is common in alpha helices withinglobular protein s, where one face of the helix is oriented toward thehydrophobic core and one face is oriented toward thesolvent -exposed surface. Specific patterns characteristic of protein folds and protein docking motifs are also revealed, as in the identification ofleucine zipper dimerization regions andcoiled coil s.External links
* [http://bioweb.pasteur.fr/cgi-bin/seqanal/pepwheel.pl PEPWHEEL] helical wheel program from the
EMBOSS suite
* [http://www-nmr.cabm.rutgers.edu/bioinformatics/Proteomic_tools/Helical_wheel/ Less traditional, more colorful wheels] (requiresMacromedia Flash )References
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