Comparison of super-secondary structures in proteins

A method of comparing the conformations of different, but structurally related proteins is described. Local variations, such as the systematic translation of a helix, or the position of deletions and insertions can be detected, and the correspondence of only marginally similar structures can be measured. The occurrence of larger continuous folds (“super-secondary structures”) has been detected in the comparison of lactate dehydrogenase with itself and with other protein structures.