PROTEIN STRUCTURE
 

There are a number of molecular imaging programs that can be downloaded as stand-alone programs or as programs allowing visualization in a web browser.  These programs convert atomic coordinate information generated from X-ray crystallographic and other protein, polynucleotide and small molecule structural analyses into rotatable images with a variety of display options. Tutorials for this course were developed in the mid 1990's, initially using the program RasMol, and then with Chime, a web browser plug-in.    Chime unfortunately had compatibility issues with web browsers and is pretty much phased out.  A Java-based program, Jmol,  that is platform independent (Microsoft, Apple, and Linux all work) replaced Chime, but is now being phased out as web browsers, which run Jmol as a Java applet, are increasingly restrictive of Java applications. In the recent past,  I've personally used Firefox, Chrome, IE and SeaMonkey on a PC for all the tutorials below.  Currently, only older versions of Firefox will work for the Hb and IgG tutorials below.  The latest Chrome will not run any Java, and the latest IE will not run the applets for these particular sites.  JSmol is replacing Jmol and works in all the above browsers, but runs very slowly in IE.  The Proteopedia links, which include the HIV protease tutorial below, use JSmol.

The computer lab in FSC216 currently has an older Firefox browser that will work for all the tutorials below.

Java must be enabled in your browser.  Security blocks for sites running Java scripts will interfere with Jmol.  Firefox should be fine as is, but if not select Enable Javascript under the options>content in menu. For IE (not recommended at this time), high security  setting in IE will block Java but medium-high is OK. 

More information about Jmol, Chime and other imaging programs, as well as links to more tutorials, can be found at http://www.molviz.org , a site maintained by Eric Martz, Professor Emeritus at University of Massachusetts.  He is the author of both the Hb and IgG tutorials.   

Jmol also exists as a downloadable desktop program that allows you to open up pdb files if you have Java installed.   Features include the ability to export images, web pages, and scripts.  The download link can be obtained at http://jmol.sourceforge.net/ .

Basic Jmol controls

Toggle spinning
(button at bottom of image frame) allows you to start/stop spinning of the molecule

Rotate
the molecule by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse (or just the mousepad on a laptop)


Translate (move entire molecule to center a partular view) by holding down ctrl  and alt buttons
and left mouse button (or just the mousepad on a laptop) and moving the mouse.

Zoom the molecule by holding the shift key and left mouse button (or just the mousepad on a laptop)and moving the mouse away from you or towards you.

Identify
amino acid residue/atom by putting the mouse over the atom of interest.  WARNING- in some views there are atoms in front that aren't visible:  they are present, but have been rendered invisible in the script.  If that is the case you may misidentify an amino acid.  Be sure it makes sense.  In a specific example you may encounter in the hemoglobin tutorial, the amino acid Val (branched hydrocarbon side chain) is very different in structure from His (5-membered ring structure with 2 N atoms).

Menu  -
right-click the mouse with the cursor in the jmol frame.  This will open up the jmol menu.  The menu allows you to select, change color schemes, turn on and off H bonds etc.  For more advanced users you can also open the console which allows youn enter and execute specific script commands.


Jmol  Tutorials for this lab

Basic Protein Structure and Hemoglobin 
http://www.umass.edu/molvis/tutorials/hemoglobin/

Basic Protein Structure and IgG    http://www.umass.edu/molvis/bme3d/materials/jmoltuts/antibody/contents/contents.htm  

HIV-1 protease  http://proteopedia.org/wiki/index.php/HIV-1_protease

Link to questions to be answered for the above three tutorials  http://webspace.ship.edu/wjpatr/protein_structure_questions.html



For protein structure enthusiasts...

The Jmol- based program FirstGlance, is nice for viewing structures http://molvis.sdsc.edu/fgij/index.htm.   It has a Jmol window with an extensive, easy-to-use menu for selecting different views.   

Proteopedia ( http://proteopedia.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ) is a Wikipedia-like protein encylopedia.  Entries are limited, but growing, and include the nicely done HIV-1 protease page above, and the timely influenza neuraminidase.  


Other Programs

Cn3D

Cn3D is an imaging program that can be downloaded from the NCBI web site  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/CN3D/cn3d.shtml.   This is a downloadable program that will interface with your web browser.  It allows easy visualization of  MMDB database files, but not pdb files.  It is the default viewer for CDD, the Conserved Domain Database. Its primary strength is that it has a sequence line that allows easy correspondence of structure and sequence. It also integrates with CDTree for protein sequence alignments and to create relationship trees. 


DeepView  (Swiss-PDBViewer)


This is a self-standing program http://spdbv.vital-it.ch/index.html  with numerous modeling tools that include "mutations"- changing amino acid residues to ascertain affects on structure, add amino acid loops, and alter bond angles.  It also interfaces with Swiss-Model  http://swissmodel.expasy.org/workspace/index.php?func=modelling_simple1 , a structure homology-modeling server that will attempt to model a polypeptide sequence to a 3D model.


Phyre and 3D-PSSM


These are protein
structure homology-modeling servers similar to Swiss-Model that attempt to model a polypeptide sequence to a 3D model, esssentially threading a sequence onto existing 3D structures.  Phyre2  http://www.sbg.bio.ic.ac.uk/phyre2/  is the latest version;  3D-PSSM is being phased out, and its fold library database is no longer updated.


Chimera


A versatile self-standing program with numerous options and specialized plug-ins available, including 3D RNA modeling. 

http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/