Abstract
Among the computational algorithms to determine solution structures of proteins,
the minimization of a variable target function in the dihedral angle space with the
first derivative has been widely applied with its success at generating unbiased
structures. The program called DADAS (Distance Analysis in Dihedral Angle Space,
sometimes called DISMAN) has been extended to include additional tools, besides the
rapid first derivative calculation and the variable target function:
a rapid second derivative calculation, effective Metropolis Monte Carlo sampling and
simulated annealing based on the Monte Carlo simulation. The new version of
DADAS, called DADAS90, has some advantages, as compared with the older one,
of flexibility to design new hybrid algorithms consisting of the mentioned
tools and the possibility to manipulate the target function minimization from short range
to long range information. The performance of each ot the tools and their
combination has been tested with respect to the convergence to the exact structure
with the use of simulated data sets of distance constraints. The points on
how to apply the program to an actual system with a limited amount of NMR
data on distance and angle constraints have been also studied.