New peptides mediating interaction networks: from protein-proteininteractions to 3D structure

Introduction Recent years have witnessed the discovery of a growing number of short peptide segments that play critical biological roles. For instance, SH3 domains bind to sequences with a PxxP pattern, 14-3-3 domains to RxxSxP. Their short length (3-8 residues) and the fact that they often reside in nonglobular parts of proteins hinders their discovery both by traditional sequence comparison or experimental techniques.