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1652: Unsolved De-novo Freestyle 149: Symmetric Dimer

Closed since almost 7 years ago

Intermediate Overall Prediction Symmetry

Summary

Created
March 21, 2019
Expires
Max points
100
Description

This is a follow-up to Puzzle 1649: De-novo Freestyle 149, now with C2 symmetry. This protein was originally designed by a Foldit player as a symmetric dimer. In Puzzle 1649, we challenged the Foldit community to try and predict how the design might fold as a single, monomeric chain. Now we want to see if Foldit players can predict how the original protein was designed to fold and bind to itself with C2 symmetry. Players may load in solutions from Puzzle 1649. Secondary structure predictions (from PSIPRED) are marked on the starting structure, and provide clues about where the protein might form helices and sheets!



Sequence:

TEVLYLKDADVEQVVRYIRQKNAEVLVVVVNFDEEQIRIIVRVVIQIVQAEVVIVVINMEEEQVKKVVNQVNVKVVVVIK

Top groups

  1. Avatar for GENE 433 11. GENE 433 1 pt. 10,656
  2. Avatar for FoldIt@Poland 12. FoldIt@Poland 1 pt. 10,622
  3. Avatar for FoldIt@Netherlands 13. FoldIt@Netherlands 1 pt. 10,453
  4. Avatar for I3L GANG 14. I3L GANG 1 pt. 9,043
  5. Avatar for freefolder 15. freefolder 1 pt. 3,418
  6. Avatar for SHELL 16. SHELL 1 pt. 2,775
  1. Avatar for fiendish_ghoul
    1. fiendish_ghoul Lv 1
    100 pts. 15,655
  2. Avatar for Galaxie 2. Galaxie Lv 1 96 pts. 14,707
  3. Avatar for tyler0911 3. tyler0911 Lv 1 92 pts. 14,420
  4. Avatar for actiasluna 4. actiasluna Lv 1 88 pts. 14,324
  5. Avatar for Timo van der Laan 5. Timo van der Laan Lv 1 84 pts. 14,194
  6. Avatar for Bruno Kestemont 6. Bruno Kestemont Lv 1 80 pts. 14,193
  7. Avatar for retiredmichael 7. retiredmichael Lv 1 76 pts. 14,098
  8. Avatar for grogar7 8. grogar7 Lv 1 73 pts. 14,051
  9. Avatar for phi16 9. phi16 Lv 1 69 pts. 13,827
  10. Avatar for Skippysk8s 10. Skippysk8s Lv 1 66 pts. 13,732

Comments

Bruno Kestemont Lv 1

When loading an old 1649 puzzle, we get our points but the 2 dimers are merged. Then on first action, the points turn (logically) to -999999999. The game is then to try to assemble the 2 dimers.

frood66 Lv 1

Just a shame that we were not given this puzzle info when we played the monomer.

Ir was pretty clear that it was a player design - but knowing it was a dimer might have helped.

bkoep Staff Lv 1

I take this to mean that, "knowing it was a dimer might have helped [to predict it as a dimer]." I'm glad you brought this up, because it opens a discussion about the purpose of these puzzles, which may not be clear from the puzzle description.

In fact, we don't know this protein sequence actually forms a dimer—we only know that it was designed to form a dimer. The goal of these De-novo Freestyle puzzles is to look for decoy folds, or other ways the design sequence might fold up (i.e. ways that the design might fail). If Foldit players can find a high-scoring fold that is a monomer, that would suggest that the design is more likely to fold up as a monomer instead of the intended dimer.

For our purposes, we actually want to avoid biasing players towards the intended design. This is why we don't share the designed fold (or even the fact that it was designed as a dimer).