GPCRserver: an accurate and novel G protein-coupled receptor predictor

G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as seven-transmembrane domain receptors, pass through the cellular membrane seven times and play diverse biological roles in the cells such as signaling, transporting of molecules and cell-cell communication. In this work, we develop a web server, namely the GPCRserver, which is capable of identifying GPCRs from genomic sequences, and locating their transmembrane regions. The GPCRserver contains three modules: (1) the Trans-GPCR for the transmembrane region prediction by using sequence evolutionary profiles with the assistance of neural network training, (2) the SSEA-GPCR for identifying GPCRs from genomic data by using secondary structure element alignment, and (3) the PPA-GPCR for identifying GPCRs by using profile-to-profile alignment. Our predictor was strictly benchmarked and showed its favorable performance in the real application. The web server and stand-alone programs are publicly available at http://genomics.fzu.edu.cn/GPCR/index.html.