Protein Co-evolutionary Analysis

This lecture by the instructor covers the co-evolutionary analysis of protein sequences, focusing on the discovery and future directions in this field. Starting with an explanation of proteins and their functions within cells, the lecture delves into the folding process, amino acid sequences, and the native state. It then explores the concept of amino-acid proximity inducing correlations, correlated mutations, and residue contacts in proteins. The discussion extends to Direct Coupling Analysis (DCA), its technical aspects, pseudolikelihood DCA, workflow, and early results. The lecture concludes by highlighting the importance of co-evolution in protein structure prediction, referencing tools like AlphaFold 2 and the Critical Assessment of techniques for protein Structure Prediction (CASP).