You are here:  Resources » Bioinformatics Tools » Glossary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology   


designability

A hypothetical property of a protein folding motif; its relative thermodynamic and evolutionary stabilities, i.e. resistance to denaturation and changes in its primary sequence, respectively. A motif is designable, because it can be achieved by a variety of amino-acid sequences, and therefore can be encoded by a variety of DNA sequences. designability encompasses foldability, a putative thermodynamic stability which is greater for any real motif than that for any other folded state that may be achieved by the same amino-acid sequence.Kardar, M. (1996) Science 273, 610

Return to Search Page

If you know of any terms that have been omitted from this glossary that you feel would be useful to include, please send details to the Editorial Office at GenScript.