Question

Which of the following is untrue regarding Homology-Based Methods?

(a) The third generation of algorithms was developed in the late 1990s

(b) They were developed by making use of evolutionary information

(c) This type of method uses the ab initio secondary structure prediction of individual sequences only

(d) This type of method combines the ab initio secondary structure prediction of individual sequences and alignment information from multiple homologous sequences (>35% identity)

I have been asked this question in an interview.

The above asked question is from Protein Secondary Structure Prediction  for Globular Proteins topic in section Secondary Structure Prediction of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

Right option is (c) This type of method uses the ab initio secondary structure prediction of individual sequences only

To explain I would say: The idea behind this approach is that close protein homologs should adopt the same secondary and tertiary structure. When each individual sequence is predicted for secondary structure using a method similar to the GOR method, errors and variations may occur. However, evolutionary conservation dictates that there should be no major variations for their secondary structure elements.