Fractal studies on the protein secondary structure elements

Abstract

The fractal dimensions of the protein secondary structure elements based on the positional distributions were calculated. The seven secondary structure elements could be grouped into two distinct classes based on their fractal dimensions. A negative correlation was observed between the dimensional values of the secondary structures and their abundances. Markov model was applied, to check the persistence of transitions of the secondary structure elements, in the protein sequences. The results suggest the presence of long-range correlations in the protein sequences that may be useful in prediction algorithms.