ABSTRACT
In order to understand the biological function of molecules at the atomic level, knowledge of their three-dimensional (3-D) structures is essential. Hence, structural
biology and structural bioinformatics will play key roles in many areas of scientific endeavour in the post-genome-sequencing era. The number of 3-D structures of biomacromolecules that is available in public databases has been increasing exponentially since the late 1970s. Early in 2005, the 30,000th structure was released by the Protein Data Bank (PDB), which is the major primary resource for deposition and distribution of 3-D structures of biomacromolecules. This may seem modest compared to the number of known protein sequences, but thanks to sequence homology, the number of sequences for which structural (and functional) information can be inferred is orders of magnitude larger. Usually fewer than half of all genes in newly sequenced genomes are related to a protein of known 3-D structure. This situation will improve since the various structural genomics initiatives around the globe are expected to deliver thousands of new structures over the next decade.
