Cavities on a proteins surface as well as specific amino acid positioning within it create the physicochemical properties needed for a protein to perform its function. CASTp () is an online tool that locates and measures pockets and voids on 3D protein structures. This new version of CASTp includes annotated functional information of specific residues on the protein structure. The annotations are derived from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), Swiss-Prot, as well as Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM), the latter contains information on the variant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are known to cause disease. These annotated residues are mapped to surface pockets, interior voids or other regions of the PDB structures. We use a semi-global pair-wise sequence alignment method to obtain sequence mapping between entries in Swiss-Prot, OMIM and entries in PDB. The updated CASTp web server can be used to study surface features, functional regions and specific roles of key residues of proteins.

Geometric and topological properties of protein structures, including surface pockets, interior cavities and cross channels, are of fundamental importance for proteins to carry out their functions. Computed Atlas of Surface Topography of proteins (CASTp) is a web server that provides online services for locating, delineating and measuring these geometric and topological properties of protein structures. It has been widely used since its inception in 2003. In this article, we present the latest version of the web server, CASTp 3.0. CASTp 3.0 continues to provide reliable and comprehensive identifications and quantifications of protein topography. In addition, it now provides: (i) imprints of the negative volumes of pockets, cavities and channels, (ii) topographic features of biological assemblies in the Protein Data Bank, (iii) improved visualization of protein structures and pockets, and (iv) more intuitive structural and annotated information, including information of secondary structure, functional sites, variant sites and other annotations of protein residues. The CASTp 3.0 web server is freely accessible at http://sts.bioe.uic.edu/castp/.

Identification and size characterization of surface pockets and occluded cavities are initial steps in protein structurebased ligand design. A new program, CAST, for automatically locating and measuring protein pockets and cavities, is based on precise computational geometry methods, including alpha shape and discrete flow theory. CAST identifies and measures pockets and pocket mouth openings, as well as cavities. The program specifies the atoms lining pockets, pocket openings, and buried cavities; the volume and area of pockets and cavities; and the area and circumference of mouth openings. CAST analysis of over 100 proteins has been carried out; proteins examined include a set of SI monomeric enzyme-ligand structures, several elastase-inhibitor complexes, the pockets and cavities in protein crystal structures and quantifying their size. The method is a computational geometry treatment of complex shapes, based on alpha shape and discrete flow theory, and a related suite of programs,

Computed Atlas of Surface Topography of proteins (CASTp) provides an online resource for locating, delineating and measuring concave surface regions on three-dimensional structures of proteins. These include pockets located on protein surfaces and voids buried in the interior of proteins. The measurement includes the area and volume of pocket or void by solvent accessible surface model (Richards' surface) and by molecular surface model (Connolly's surface), all calculated analytically. CASTp can be used to study surface features and functional regions of proteins. CASTp includes a graphical user interface, flexible interactive visualization, as well as on-the-fly calculation for user uploaded structures. CASTp is updated daily and can be accessed at http://cast.engr.uic.edu.

The average packing density inside proteins is as high as in crystalline solids. Does this mean proteins are well-packed? We go beyond average densities, and look at the full distribution functions of free volumes inside proteins. Using a new and rigorous Delaunay triangulation method for parsing space into empty and filled regions, we introduce formal definitions of interior and surface packing densities. Although proteins look like organic crystals by the criterion of average density, they look more like liquids and glasses by the criterion of their free volume distributions. The distributions are broad, and the scalings of volume-to-surface, volume-to-cluster-radius, and numbers of void versus volume show that the interiors of proteins are more like randomly packed spheres near their percolation threshold than like jigsaw puzzles. We find that larger proteins are packed more loosely than smaller proteins. And we find that the enthalpies of folding (per amino acid) are independent of the packing density of a protein, indicating that van der Waals interactions are not a dominant component of the folding forces.