This article is part of the supplement: IEEE 7th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering at Harvard Medical School

Research

MeDor: a metaserver for predicting protein disorder

Philippe Lieutaud , Bruno Canard and Sonia Longhi

Architecture et Fonction des Macromolécules Biologiques, UMR 6098 CNRS et Universités Aix-Marseille I et II, 163 Avenue de Luminy, Case 932, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France

author email corresponding author email

BMC Genomics 2008, 9(Suppl 2):S25doi:10.1186/1471-2164-9-S2-S25

Published:	16 September 2008

Abstract

Background

We have previously shown that using multiple prediction methods improves the accuracy of disorder predictions. It is, however, a time-consuming procedure, since individual outputs of multiple predictions have to be retrieved, compared to each other and a comprehensive view of the results can only be obtained through a manual, fastidious, non-automated procedure. We herein describe a new web metaserver, MeDor, which allows fast, simultaneous analysis of a query sequence by multiple predictors and provides a graphical interface with a unified view of the outputs.

Results

MeDor was developed in Java and is freely available and downloadable at: http://www.vazymolo.org/MeDor/index.html webcite. Presently, MeDor provides a HCA plot and runs a secondary structure prediction, a prediction of signal peptides and transmembrane regions and a set of disorder predictions. MeDor also enables the user to customize the output and to retrieve the sequence of specific regions of interest.

Conclusion

As MeDor outputs can be printed, saved, commented and modified further on, this offers a dynamic support for the analysis of protein sequences that is instrumental for delineating domains amenable to structural and functional studies.