Vanadate in structural biology

The rapidly growing number of protein structures in the protein data bank (PDB) provides opportunities to obtain biological insights from those that share common features. We used the information available in the PDB to survey the structural features that are common among proteins, which bind to vanadate. The ability of vanadate to mimic phosphate and vice versa is presumably due to the structural similarity vanadate shares with phosphate. We analyze the geometries of the bound vanadate and the nature of its binding interfaces. We also compared structures of enzyme groups bound to both ligands. This data improves our understanding of vanadate recognition and will be useful in not only the evaluation of new structures but also in the development of new therapeutic agents based on structural recognition.