Determining Domain Similarity and Domain-Protein Similarity Using Functional Similarity Measurements of Gene Ontology Terms

Protein domains typically correspond to major functional sites of a protein. Therefore, determining similarity between domains can aid in the comparison of protein functions, and can provide a basis for grouping domains based on function. One strategy for comparing domain similarity and domain-protein similarity is to use similarity measurements of annotation terms from the Gene Ontology (GO). In this paper five methods are analyzed in terms of their usefulness for comparing domains, and comparing domains to proteins based on GO terms.