Applications of 3D Zernike Descriptors in Protein Structure Comparison

Abstract

Proteins perform various functions in living organisms, and understanding their 3D structures is essential to understanding their functions. The 3D Zernike descriptor (3DZD) provides a compact, rotationally and translationally invariant description of protein surface shapes. These features are desirable when applying 3DZD to describe the shape of proteins. Therefore, 3DZD is widely used for comparing protein structures and for shape-based searches. In this review, we describe the properties of 3DZD and their various applications in protein structure analysis.