MISTIC

MISTIC visualizes mutual information (MI) between residue pairs to reveal coevolutionary relationships and residue interaction patterns within protein families.

Key Features:

• Mutual Information Visualization: Computes and graphically depicts mutual information (MI) between residue pairs to infer coevolutionary relationships within protein families.
• Sequence Conservation Analysis: Quantifies sequence conservation across aligned sequences to identify evolutionary constraints and functionally important positions.
• Residue Cumulative and Proximity MI Scores: Calculates and displays cumulative MI and proximity MI scores for residues to characterize residue interaction patterns.
• Circos-based MI Network Representation: Represents MI networks using circos plots to visualize pairwise MI relationships across the protein sequence.
• Selectable Network Subsets and Node Coloring: Supports selection of network subsets and node coloring based on conservation, cumulative MI, proximity MI, and secondary structure annotations.

Scientific Applications:

• Protein Evolution Analysis: Detects coevolving residue pairs and conserved positions to study evolutionary constraints in protein families.
• Structure–Function Inference: Highlights residues and regions likely involved in functional or structural roles through conservation and MI metrics.
• Coevolutionary Network Analysis: Maps and analyzes MI-based networks to investigate coevolutionary patterns and residue interaction topologies.

Methodology:

Computes mutual information between residue pairs from aligned sequences, calculates sequence conservation, derives cumulative and proximity MI scores per residue, and represents MI networks using circos plots.