RAPTOR (software)

RAPTOR is protein threading software used for protein structure prediction. It has been replaced by RaptorX, which is much more accurate than RAPTOR.

Comparison of techniques

Protein threading vs. homology modeling

Researchers attempting to solve a protein's structure start their a study with little more than a protein sequence. Initial steps may include performing a PSI-BLAST or PatternHunter search to locate a similar sequences with a known structure in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). If there are highly similar sequences with known structures, there is a high probability that this protein's structure will be very similar to those known structures as well as functions. If there is no homology found, the researcher must perform either X-ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, both of which require considerable time and resources to yield a structure. Where these techniques are too expensive, time-consuming or limited in scope, researchers can use protein threading software, such as RAPTOR to create a highly reliable model of the protein.