Figure 8
Figure 8. Superposition of Sia24 predictive and crystallographic models. The structure of Sia24 (dark blue) was solved with initial phase determination by molecular replacement using a model generated by AlphaFold2 (yellow).
Given the initial results for both Phyre2 and ensembled low-homology models in molecular replacement, a solution for Sia24 without AlphaFold2 would have likely been eventually determined. However, the greatly improved accuracy of the AlphaFold2 models, with all side chains and flexible loops in place, is undeniable. Sia24 exhibits roughly 20% sequence homology with previously known structures, which in most cases is at the threshold of likely success with molecular replacement for most targets. AlphaFold2 was able to use information from known structures in a novel way compared to previous algorithms, and provide an effective solution where the alternatives struggled.