Conformational changes in proteins are of interest for several reasons:
(1) Many protein undergo specific conformational changes as essential parts of the mechanism of their function.
(2) The observation of multiple conformations of the same protein probes the axiom that amino acid sequence determines protein structure. In some cases, such as the SERine Proteinase INhibitors (SERPINS) homologous members of the family appear with folding patterns with different topologies.
(3) Analysis of conformational change presents computational challenges involving questions of structural alignment and extraction of common substructures.
