New Principles of Protein Structure: Nests, Eggs—and What Next?

Protein structure prediction, not only description: A step in this direction is the discovery that many anion and cation binding sites (where ions can be atoms exhibiting a full or partial charge) in proteins are made up of three amino acids of which two exhibit “enantiomeric” main-chain conformations. The combination of torsion angle pairs determines whether an RL or an LR nest is formed (see picture).