Topogenic sequences share a series of structural features, and thereby computational algorithms can be used to predict these protein-membrane segments
Explanation:
Topogenic sequences are protein segments formed by alpha-helical transmembrane domains, which are required for the insertion of membrane proteins. These domains share a series of well-defined features: they are composed of segments of about 20 hydrophobic amino-acid residues. In consequence, computational algorithms can be designed to identify protein patterns that fulfill these structural requirements (i.e. segments with a length of 20 residues, hydrophobic level, etc). The models assign a similarity threshold (threshold value) that predict if the similarity level of the protein pattern is good enough to detect a topogenic segment.
