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Software for Interactive Analysis of Large Molecular Assemblies

Most proteins operate as part of molecular assemblies -- few act alone. Human cells contain thousands of distinct assemblies built from a few to thousands of proteins. Examples are ribosomes (synthesize proteins), polymerases (transcribe DNA to RNA), nucleosomes (spool DNA), nuclear pores (portals for all traffic into and out of the cell nucleus), microtubules (used in cell division, motility and other processes), proteasomes (degrade unneeded proteins), chaperonins (enclosures for folding proteins), clathrin cages (transport in/out of cell), spliceosomes (remove introns from mRNA), and topoisomerases (unwind DNA). Hundreds of assemblies are known and thousands remain to be discovered and studied.

This project develops interactive software used to determine the structure and function of assemblies, especially through analysis of 3-dimensional electron microscopy density maps. Specifically we develop improved capabilities for

Fitting in Electron Microscopy Maps

Animation

Myosin thick filament density map (Woodhead, 2005) fit using a smooth muscle myosin crystal structure (PDB 1i84) containing two heavy chains, two essential light chains, and two regulatory light chains. Copies of the myosin subunit are automatically reoriented to maintain helical symmetry during fitting so that steric clashes are apparent.

Some relevant Chimera tools:

Molecular Assemblies in Cellular Environments

Microtubules (red), a centriole (yellow), lysosomes (blue), Golgi (green) and cell membrane (orange) are shown traced in an electron tomography density map of a human cytotoxic T-cell. Lysosome are towed along microtubules to deliver a lethal dose of serine proteases to an infected adjacent cell.

More Examples

Additional tools for analyzing density maps are described in the Guide to Volume Data Display

More animations of molecular assemblies can be found in the animation gallery.

Further demonstrations of Chimera capabilities for elucidating molecular assemblies are given on the Demonstrations, Talks and Posters web page.

References:


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