Secondary structure prediction is a set of techniques in bioinformatics

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...

 that aim to predict the secondary structure

Secondary structure

In biochemistry and structural biology, secondary structure is the general three-dimensional form of local segments of biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids...

s of protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

s and nucleic acid

Nucleic acid

Nucleic acids are biological molecules essential for life, and include DNA and RNA . Together with proteins, nucleic acids make up the most important macromolecules; each is found in abundance in all living things, where they function in encoding, transmitting and expressing genetic information...

 sequences based only on knowledge of their primary structure

Primary structure

The primary structure of peptides and proteins refers to the linear sequence of its amino acid structural units. The term "primary structure" was first coined by Linderstrøm-Lang in 1951...

. For proteins, this means predicting the formation of protein structure

Protein structure

Proteins are an important class of biological macromolecules present in all organisms. Proteins are polymers of amino acids. Classified by their physical size, proteins are nanoparticles . Each protein polymer – also known as a polypeptide – consists of a sequence formed from 20 possible L-α-amino...

s such as alpha helices

Alpha helix

A common motif in the secondary structure of proteins, the alpha helix is a right-handed coiled or spiral conformation, in which every backbone N-H group donates a hydrogen bond to the backbone C=O group of the amino acid four residues earlier...

 and beta strand

Beta sheet

The β sheet is the second form of regular secondary structure in proteins, only somewhat less common than the alpha helix. Beta sheets consist of beta strands connected laterally by at least two or three backbone hydrogen bonds, forming a generally twisted, pleated sheet...

s, while for nucleic acids it means predicting the formation of nucleic acid structure

Nucleic acid structure

Nucleic acid structure refers to the structure of nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA It is often divided into four different levels:* Primary structure—the raw sequence of nucleobases of each of the component DNA strands;...

s like helixes and stem-loop

Stem-loop

Stem-loop intramolecular base pairing is a pattern that can occur in single-stranded DNA or, more commonly, in RNA. The structure is also known as a hairpin or hairpin loop. It occurs when two regions of the same strand, usually complementary in nucleotide sequence when read in opposite directions,...

 structures through base pair

Base pair

In molecular biology and genetics, the linking between two nitrogenous bases on opposite complementary DNA or certain types of RNA strands that are connected via hydrogen bonds is called a base pair...

ing and base stacking interactions.

Secondary structure prediction can refer to:

• Protein structure prediction:Secondary structure
• Nucleic acid structure prediction
  Nucleic acid structure prediction
  Nucleic acid structure prediction is a computational method to determine nucleic acid secondary and tertiary structure from its sequence. Secondary structure can be predicted from a single or from several nucleic acid sequences...