Fig. 1

Illustration of the methodological analysis of repeat proteins. a A repeat protein fingerprint (red) “sliding” over a second one (blue). At each point, J_X is calculated to find the optimal overlap between the two proteins. The center black line is the self identity line. The length of the repeating sequence and gaps between them are indicated by line length and gap length respectively. The spacing between a colored line and the black identity line indicates the distance between the pairs of repeating sequences. b Highlighting of repeats in the seven-bladed human regulator of chromosome condensation protein (PDB ID:1a12) detected by the fingerprint method using a multiple sequence alignment. The protein is colored grey while the putative repeats are indicated in red and blue (alternating). The five residues before the first repeat and after the last repeat are indicated in yellow. Black dashed lines serve as a visual aids to help identify the 7 propeller blades. c Deconvolution of the dot plots by reading the indices (red) of each residue also allows reconstruction of the repeats