The number of sequences and structures of biological molecules, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins, is explosively increasing in databases. Although the topics of sequence analysis and structure prediction of biological molecules have lasted for more than twenty years, more and more studies indicate that how to discover physical features lying behind this big data is still an unsolved problem. On one hand, the existing features were often found not to sufficiently represent overall properties of sequences and structures. The discovery of novel features itself will enhance the understanding of the relation between sequence, structure, and biological function. On the other hand, the conventional paradigm of sequence-structure-function is being challenged by the intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), which are a new class of proteins that lack unique tertiary structure under natural conditions while possessing essential biological functions. Therefore, it is urgent to perform sequence and structure analysis based on computational methods to comprehensively describe the intrinsic properties of biological molecules. The studies on these aspects will be important for discovering the disease mechanism and thus useful for the drug design.

This special issue will provide a platform to integrate the most recent development and ideas in the field. We call for original research articles and reviews.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Graphical representation of biological sequences and its applications
• Sequence pattern discovery based on computational methods
• Discovery of novel structural properties by molecular dynamics simulations
• Prediction or biological analysis of intrinsic disorder proteins
• Molecular interactions between protein and other molecules
• Secondary structure and 3D structure prediction of protein and RNA
• Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)
• Systems biology methods based sequence-structure-function analysis