| Summary: | We introduce five new local metal cation (first of all, Ca<sup>2+</sup>) recognition units in proteins: Clamp<sub>n,(n−2)</sub>, Clamp<sub>n,(n−1)</sub>, Clamp<sub>n,n</sub>, Clamp<sub>n,(n+1)</sub> and Clamp<sub>n,(n+2)</sub>. In these units, the backbone oxygen atom of a residue in position “n” of an amino acid sequence and side-chain oxygen atom of a residue in position “n + i” (i = −2 to +2) directly interact with a metal cation. An analysis of the known “Ca<sup>2+</sup>-bound niches” in proteins has shown that a system approach based on the simultaneous use of the Clamp units and earlier proposed One-Residue (OR)/Three-Residue (TR) units significantly improves the results of constructing metal cation-binding sites in proteins.
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