A lattice is a set of orderly points that are connected by "edges". These points are called vertices and are connected to a certain number other vertices in the lattice by edges. The number of vertices each individual vertex is connected to is called the coordination number of the lattice, and it can be scaled up or down by changing the shape or dimension (2-dimensional to 3-dimensional, for example) of the lattice. This number is important in shaping the characteristics of the lattice protein because it controls the number of other residues allowed to be adjacent to a given residue. It has been shown that for most proteins the coordination number of the lattice used should fall between 3 and 20, although most commonly used lattices have coordination numbers at the lower end of this range.
