BioPhysConnectoR: Connecting Sequence Information and Biophysical Models

Background One of the most challenging aspects of biomolecular systems is the understanding of the coevolution in and among the molecule(s). A complete, theoretical picture of the selective advantage, and thus a functional annotation, of (co-)mutations is still lacking. Using sequence-based and information theoretical inspired methods we can identify coevolving residues in proteins without understanding the underlying biophysical properties giving rise to such coevolutionary dynamics. Detailed (atomistic) simulations are prohibitively expensive. At the same time reduced molecular models are an efficient way to determine the reduced dynamics around the native state. The combination of sequence based approaches with such reduced models is therefore a promising approach to annotate evolutionary sequence changes.