SAPS evaluates by statistical criteria a wide variety of protein sequence properties. Statistically significant sequence features highlighted by SAPS in the input sequence may suggest promising regions for experimental investigation. The program also finds application in the description of conserved features of families of proteins as well as in the inverse problem of deriving protein groupings based upon sequence features.
Short sequences are subject to larger statistical fluctuations than longer sequences.
The statistical evaluations of SAPS are reliable only for sequences of at least about 200 residues. The SAPS program was developed in the group of Prof. Samuel Karlin at Stanford University. The program is available via anonymous ftp from gnomic.stanford.edu.