A strategy for the rapid multiple alignment of protein sequences. Confidence levels from tertiary structure comparisons

An algorithm is presented for the multiple alignment of protein sequences that is both accurate and rapid computationally. The approach is based on the conventional dynamic-programming method of pairwise alignment. Initially, two sequences are aligned, then the third sequence is aligned against the alignment of both sequences one and two. Similarly, the fourth sequence is aligned against one, two and three. This is repeated until all sequences have been aligned. Iteration is then performed to yield a final alignment. The accuracy of sequence alignment is evaluated from alignment of the secondary structures in a family of proteins. For the globins, the multiple alignment was on average 99% accurate compared to 90% for pairwise comparison of sequences. For the alignment of immunoglobulin constant and variable domains, the use of many sequences yielded an alignment of 63% average accuracy compared to 41% average for individual variable/constant alignments. The multiple alignment algorithm yields an assignment of disulphide connectivity in mammalian serotransferrin that is consistent with crystallographic data, whereas pairwise alignments give an alternative assignment.