CoCoNat: A Deep Learning–Based Tool for the Prediction of Coiled-coil Domains in Protein Sequences

Coiled-coil domains (CCDs) are structural motifs observed in proteins in all organisms that perform several crucial functions. The computational identification of CCD segments over a protein sequence is of great importance for its functional characterization. This task can essentially be divided into three separate steps: the detection of segment boundaries, the annotation of the heptad repeat pattern along the segment, and the classification of its oligomerization state. Several methods have been proposed over the years addressing one or more of these predictive steps. In this protocol, we illustrate how to make use of CoCoNat, a novel approach based on protein language models, to characterize CCDs. CoCoNat is, at its release (August 2023), the state of the art for CCD detection. The web server allows users to submit input protein sequences and visualize the predicted domains after a few minutes. Optionally, precomputed segments can be provided to the model, which will predict the oligomerization state for each of them. CoCoNat can be easily integrated into biological pipelines by downloading the standalone version, which provides a single executable script to produce the output.