Local structure based method for prediction of the biochemical function of proteins: Applications to glycoside hydrolases.

•SALSA aligns predicted functionally active residues of proteins in a superfamily.•SALSA classifies protein functions based on predicted active spatial positions.•Two proteins of unknown function (3ON6, 2P0V) are predicted exo-α-1,6-mannosidases.•A putative glycoside hydrolase (2RDY) showed a good match to α-l-galactosidase.•GH16 family member from M. smegmatis (3RQ0) is predicted to be an endoglucanase.