Equation 8 · Part 12 · Structure from Sequence: What Protein Folding Prediction Did and Did Not Settle

fraction

P(a_1,\ldots,a_L) = \frac{1}{Z}\exp\!\left[\sum_{i} h_i(a_i) + \sum_{i<j} e_{ij}(a_i,a_j)\right],

fraction

What this part means

Divide the expression above the line by the one below it.

Its job in the formula

The expression above the fraction bar is divided by the complete expression below it. The denominator must not be zero.

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The passage around this formula

The fix is to fit a global model that explains the observed column statistics with the smallest number of direct couplings. In the maximum-entropy formulation used in this literature, the probability of a full sequence takes a Potts form, $P(a_1,\ldots,a_L) = \frac{1}{Z}\exp\!\left[\sum_{i} h_i(a_i) + \sum_{i<j} e_{ij}(a_i,a_j)\right]$ . with single-site fields $h_i$ and pair couplings $e_{ij}$ fitted so that the model reproduces the single-column and pairwise frequencies of the alignment. Marks and colleagues reported that the strength of the inferred couplings is a strong predictor of residue proximity in the folded structure, and that the top-scoring couplings are accurate and well-distributed enough to define a three-dimensional fold [ 5 ] . Morcos and colleagues…

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