- Chimera-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

Re: [Chimera-users] Proper display of oligosaccharide
by Greg Couch 18 Apr '07

18 Apr '07

To followup, I just tried the first Human milk saccarides example on the Sweet webside, 2'-Fucosyllactose, and the PDB file it generates doesn't display at all because of the non-standard data in columns 67-72. We have decided that we're being too strict in this case and will change chimera. In the iterim, if you're on a UNIX system (Linux, Mac OS X, etc.), you can truncate the lines with the following: awk '{if (/^ATOM/) print substr($0, 1, 67); else print $0}' < original > fixed with appropriate filename replacements for original and fixed. Greg Couch UCSF Computer Graphics Lab

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Proper display of oligosaccharide
by R. Andrew Byrd 18 Apr '07

18 Apr '07

We study protein:carbohydrate interactions, and we use chimera for protein displays. We have a model built for an oligosaccharide using the SWEET server at http://www.dkfz-heidelberg.de/spec/sweet2/doc/index.php The file is in pdb format, but it has neither amino acid residue names nor nucleotide names. Hence, the molecule is invisible in Chimera. How could we make this a recognizable molecule so that we can examine various visualizations and modeling efforts using Chimera? Thanks! Andy P.S. I can send the file if you want.

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using different scale for 2 models
by jean-francois menetret 17 Apr '07

17 Apr '07

Is it possible to vary the scale of one model in respect to another during a movie ? Jean-Fran�ois M�n�tret, PhD Boston University School of Medicine Physiology and Biophysics Department 700 Albany Street W315 Boston, MA 02118 Email: menetret(a)bu.edu Mailing address: 715 Albany Street

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Re: [Chimera-users] Rotate or rock commands for making movie?
by Elaine Meng 17 Apr '07

17 Apr '07

On Apr 17, 2007, at 2:14 PM, Walter wrote: > Hi Elaine, > > I would like to make a movie using CHIMERA, but can only figure out > how to > rotate the molecule by hand and it ends up looking sloppy. Are there > command line entries for smoothly rotating or rocking a molecule? > > Thanks for your help! > > Walt Hi Walter, Sounds like you are looking for the "roll" command. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/1.2376/docs/UsersGuide/midas/roll.html This page lists commands especially useful for scripting movies, and links to a few example command files: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/1.2376/docs/UsersGuide/movies.html I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Help with installing DMS and Chimera
by Ben Keshet 17 Apr '07

17 Apr '07

Hello everybody, I am a very inexperienced new user of Linux / cygwin and having problems in installing DMS and Chimera: 1. I am trying to install DMS but having problems with specifying correctly the pathway to the appropriate locations of the BINDIR and LIBDIR directories in the GNUmakefile. I am getting a message: "Cannot create directory. not such file or directory". I have tried it both on Linux enterprise 4 and on Windows using cygwin. My pathway includes spaces, i.e: /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/User Name/Desktop/dms/bin Can anyone please tell me how exactly I should enter the pathway (I think the spaces cause the problem but not sure)? 2. I am having problems running the chimera-installer.exe. file of Chimera on Linux. When I double-clicked on it, it tells me that I cannot execute the file, so as suggested in the instructions (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/1.2304/linux.html) I typed chmod +x 'filename' . When I checked the properties of the file after chmod, the box of 'execute' was checked (so I believe that I really changed the file's permissions). However, I am still getting the same error message when I double-click it. Does anyone know what am I doing wrong? Please consider my lack of experience in UNIX terminology if you try to answer one of my questions, Thanks a lot, Ben

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switching object on/off at the command line
by jean-francois menetret 16 Apr '07

16 Apr '07

Is it possible to switch a model on/off from the command line ? "objdisplay #model / ~objdisplay #model" sound promissing but it doesn't work ... Jean-Fran�ois M�n�tret, PhD Boston University School of Medicine Physiology and Biophysics Department 700 Albany Street W315 Boston, MA 02118 Email: menetret(a)bu.edu Mailing address: 715 Albany Street

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gromacs trajectory - only atoms, no bonds
by Moo Cow 16 Apr '07

16 Apr '07

I believe one has to have a very recent chimera in order to be able to read gromacs trajectories. I have "beta version 1 build 2376 2007/04/11 It is terrific that chimera can read the trajectories (without problem), but it then does not seem to join the atoms with bonds (it certainly does so for normal pdb files). My trajectory is displayed as a set of lonely unbonded atoms. I believe I checked for obvious mistakes on my part. I went to the tutorial, found the lines repr stick and so on. They gave no error message, but did not help. Many thanks for any advice. = Search for products and services at: http://search.mail.com

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Re: [Chimera-users] Ribosomal RNA depiction
by Tom Goddard 13 Apr '07

13 Apr '07

Hi Dave, The RNA display using surfaces for each base could be done easily in a Python script, but not with Chimera commands since those are not available for multiscale. The result could be exported to POV-ray, or since Chimera now includes POV-ray the raytraced image can be directly produced in Chimera. I still think that a fat tubular ribbon with a single base atom shown as sphere gives a cleaner coarse view of RNA that indicates base orientations. Here's a ribbon and sphere image, also a ribbon with surface bases, also an image with bases with NDB colors. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/goddard/temp/1s72-rna/1s72.html Tom David Konerding wrote: > > > On 4/12/07, *Thomas Goddard* <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > <mailto:goddard@cgl.ucsf.edu>> wrote: > > Hi Jean-Francois, > > Here are some tips for showing coarse RNA depictions. > > I too had lots of different colors for the ribosome rna bases using > the nucleic acid blobs tool but I changed them. Here was my > procedure. > > 1. open 1s72 > 2. select chain 0 (menu Select / Chain / 0) > 3. invert selection to select all proteins (menu Select / Invert) > 4. delete all the proteins (menu Actions / Atoms+Bonds / Delete > 5. open reschains.py > 6. open multiscale (menu Tools / Higher-order Structure / > Multiscale Models) > 7. select multiscale multimer type None and press Make models. > 8. press multiscale select All button, change resolution to 2, press > Resurface > 9. ctrl-click on backbone to select it > 10. invert selection (menu Select / Invert) > 11. click multiscale color button and set color of all bases > > > Tom- > > This looks nice. I don't have a lot of time to look into the > implementation right now, > but can steps 6-11 be done programmatically easily? > > Will the resulting images export to povray? > > Dave > >

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questions using chimera
by Xiaoyun Chen 12 Apr '07

12 Apr '07

I have two questions: 1) Is there a way for chimera to display the x-y-z axes? For example, for a pdb file, all the x/y/z coordinates are referenced to the molecular coordinate system. In the chimera screen, we can rotate the molecules. I want to know the orientation of the molecular coordinate system in the laboratory/chimera coordinate system, but cannot find a way for the x/y/z to show up on the screen. Many other protein visualization software (VMD, Molw, etc) have this feature. 2) by default, the z coordinate point out from the screen. often i would like to see the protein with its z direction in the plane of the screen and pointing up. tools-viewing controls-side view allow me to get what i want, but the image is only the protein projected onto the y-z plane. but it would be nice if there are two side view panels, one with an image in the y-z plane, one with an image in the x-z plane. Thank you! Xiaoyun Chen

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Ribosomal RNA depiction
by Thomas Goddard 12 Apr '07

12 Apr '07

Hi Jean-Francois, Here are some tips for showing coarse RNA depictions. I too had lots of different colors for the ribosome rna bases using the nucleic acid blobs tool but I changed them. Here was my procedure. 1. open 1s72 2. select chain 0 (menu Select / Chain / 0) 3. invert selection to select all proteins (menu Select / Invert) 4. delete all the proteins (menu Actions / Atoms+Bonds / Delete 5. open reschains.py 6. open multiscale (menu Tools / Higher-order Structure / Multiscale Models) 7. select multiscale multimer type None and press Make models. 8. press multiscale select All button, change resolution to 2, press Resurface 9. ctrl-click on backbone to select it 10. invert selection (menu Select / Invert) 11. click multiscale color button and set color of all bases http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/goddard/temp/1s72-rna.png Nicer simplified depictions can be made using ribbons with a single side chain atom as a sphere. The ribbon style editor (Tools / Depictions / Ribbon Style Editor) can fatten up the ribbon. Or for fancier bases shown as slabs use the Nucleotides tool (Tools / Depiction / Nucleotides), for example, http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/ImageGallery/entries/stmvrna/1a34.png Tom jean-francois menetret wrote: > > Hi Tom, > > the new reschains.py works well; but how did you specify the color > scheme in 1s72_rna.png using "multiscalemodel" option ? I am getting so > many different colours (see attached jpeg) > > Jean-François Ménétret, PhD > Boston University School of Medicine

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exporting ".pov" session
by Tom Goddard 12 Apr '07

12 Apr '07

Jean-Francois asks about what is exported to POV-ray. jean-francois menetret wrote: > > Hi Thomas, > > I have a question about saving ".pov" session > > Items of the chimera window that are not shown at the time of the > export command are saved in the povray scene. > Is that normal ? How can I save one object at a time ? > > Jean-Francois

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Suggestion on biological assembly load
by Miguel Ortiz-Lombardia 11 Apr '07

11 Apr '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear all, I have small suggestion to make that I would find helpful if implemented in chimera: I think it would be great if the "biological assembly" could be fetched by ID from the File menu, just as it goes now for the pdb coordinates file from the RCSB site. Such assemblies are kept at the PQS database at the EBI (Cambridge). The links there follow this syntax: http://pqs.ebi.ac.uk/pqs-doc/macmol/<ID>.mmol where <ID> is obviously that of the PDB structure. Despite the extension, it is a plain PDB file. The CRYST1 record (for crystallographic structures) of such coordinates files has been modified to space group P1, since the crystallographic operations of the original structure don't hold. A potential problem if these files is that they don't seem to care about having duplicated atom numbers... These assemblies are most often correct and validated by experiments. However, you might want to add a caveat or, even better, an intermediate window with a link to the place where the PQS explains how that particular oligomer was generated and why it is considered biologically relevant: http://pqs.ebi.ac.uk/pqs-bin/macmol.pl?filename=<ID> Best regards, Miguel - -- Miguel Ortiz Lombardía Centro de Investigaciones Oncológicas C/ Melchor Fernández Almagro, 3 28029 Madrid, Spain Tel. +34 912 246 900 Fax. +34 912 246 976 e-mail: molatwork(a)yahoo.es - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Et ainsi ne pouvant faire que ce qui est juste fût fort, on a fait que ce qui est fort fût juste. Blaise Pascal, Pensées -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (Darwin) iD8DBQFGGL+gF6oOrDvhbQIRAtQ2AKCi9oIpIJffYwshk1PgB2aiG4e9rgCghjzZ Uz0yTug1VXEHXNP2MG2HsmI= =EGzy -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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exporting a mineral structure as VRML
by Janet Iwasa 11 Apr '07

11 Apr '07

Hello, I'm trying to use Chimera to export a mineral file ( http://virtual-museum.soils.wisc.edu/soil_smectite/soil_smectite.pdb) as a ball and stick VRML structure, but I'm running into a bit of difficulty since some of the bonds don't get made into sticks -- rather, they appear as purple dotted lines in the viewer. Any suggestions on how to get these bonds to be made into geometry? thanks! Janet Iwasa

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Extra Chimera marker attributes
by Tom Goddard 10 Apr '07

10 Apr '07

Hi Jeff, The Chimera path tracer markers accommodate extra attributes that are read and written to the XML marker files. There is no user interface to define new marker attributes in Chimera. A user interface to define new marker attributes does not seem hard. You could specify an attribute name and value in a command or dialog that assigns that attribute for all selected markers. For these new attributes to be of any use within Chimera more capabilities would be needed. For example some command or dialog that would allow you to select all markers with a certain attribute and value (e.g. is_filament = true). These kinds of capabilities already exist for attributes of atoms of molecules. For example, see the "setattr" and "defattr" commands, and "Render/Select by Attribute" tool, and atom specifiers that can test for specific attribute values. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/setattr.html http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/defattr.html http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/render/render.html http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/atom_spec.html#descri… These will work with path tracer markers since markers are implemented as atoms. But there are problems. For example "defattr" uses names of atoms and the names of the path tracer atoms are not meaningful. Probably "setattr" is more useful and you can set an attribute for all currently selected atoms. The main weakness is that these atom attributes will not be saved in marker XML files. That is probably easy to fix but I would need to investigate how atom attributes are implemented. For markers the attributes are kept in a Python dictionary marker.extra_attributes. I do not know if atom attributes on markers will be saved in Chimera session files. Would have to test that. Tom Jeff wrote: > Tom, > > how hard would it be to add other attribute(s) to the markers > generated with the volume path tracer tool, aside from > marker-to-marker connectivity? Such as the ability to enumerate > individual filaments/objects within a single marker set, or a flag > that would tell whether a set/group is composed of filaments, or > surfaces, or just a point cloud? Either of of these (enumeration, or > object type) could be stored as an integer. > > -Jeff

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transparency factor
by jean-francois menetret 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

Is it possible to change the transparency factor of a volume at the command line ? Jean-Fran�ois M�n�tret, PhD Boston University School of Medicine Physiology and Biophysics Department 700 Albany Street W315 Boston, MA 02118 Email: menetret(a)bu.edu Mailing address: 715 Albany Street

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Fetch EMDB map by id
by Thomas Goddard 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

Hi Cathy, It is a good idea to allow fetching EMDB maps by id in the current File / Fetch by ID dialog. Their are two issues related to the large size of some maps that I would like to solve to make that work well. First I would like Chimera not to freeze while the fetching is done. That is what currently happens when fetching files. Instead it could show a progress dialog with a cancel button (like a web browser) and open the map when it finally arrives. Second I would like the map to be saved on your local machine so that you don't have to fetch the same large file more than once. Perhaps the way that would work is the the first time you fetch any file it asks you where to save this and future fetched files, and there will be an option not to save them. This would be remembered in your Chimera preferences file. When you subsequently used the fetch dialog it could first look in the directory where you save fetched files and use the copy there if available. Thanks for the suggestion. It is on my requested features list. Tom

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Re: [Chimera-users] hkcage command
by Thomas Goddard 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

Hi Padma, The code for the hkcage command had to be changed for Chimera version 1.2348 and newer because we switched from using the Numeric Python array package to its not completely compatible successor called NumPy. The new code for the hkcage command is on the experimental features web page http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/experimental/experimental.html Use that new code with Chimera 1.2363. I have not had time to try flattening an icosahedral map. I made a small step toward another request of yours, plotting radial density. I tried a Python 2-d plotting library called matplotlib that could be used for making radial density plots. It is a pretty big package so we have not decided whether to include it in Chimera. Tom

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GIF animations in Chimera
by Tom Goddard 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

Anyone interested in GIF animation output from Chimera? Their main appeal is that they play directly in most web browsers (like banner ads). It was easy to add to the Chimera movie recorder using ffmpeg which is included in the Chimera distribution. But ffmpeg uses a fixed color palette causing severe color banding and does not offer LZW compression resulting in large file sizes. That option looks unusable. I tried another approach using a separate program called "gifsicle". That gave decent coloring and compression but it would require adding gifsicle to the Chimera distribution. I am reluctant to do that (entails future maintenance) unless there is strong interest in making GIF animations. Tom

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[Fwd: Re: GIF animations in Chimera]
by Thomas Goddard 09 Apr '07

09 Apr '07

Miguel uses ImageMagick to make GIF animations from Chimera movie frames. Tom -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] GIF animations in Chimera Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2007 09:09:43 +0200 From: Miguel Ortiz-Lombardia To: Tom Goddard Hi Tom, I make animated GIFs with Chimera by simply saving the frames and using convert (from ImageMagick). I run an extremely simple script to do so and the results are up to my needs. Cheers, Miguel En/na Tom Goddard ha escrit: > Anyone interested in GIF animation output from Chimera? Their main > appeal is that they play directly in most web browsers (like banner ads). > > It was easy to add to the Chimera movie recorder using ffmpeg which is > included in the Chimera distribution. But ffmpeg uses a fixed color > palette causing severe color banding and does not offer LZW compression > resulting in large file sizes. That option looks unusable. I tried > another approach using a separate program called "gifsicle". That gave > decent coloring and compression but it would require adding gifsicle to > the Chimera distribution. I am reluctant to do that (entails future > maintenance) unless there is strong interest in making GIF animations. > > Tom > > _______________________________________________ > Chimera-users mailing list > Chimera-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-users >

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Re: [Chimera-users] [chimera-dev] Building a multimer model
by Elaine Meng 07 Apr '07

07 Apr '07

Hi Benjamin, There is probably more than one way to do this in Chimera, but I'd open the protein of interest six times and match it to the six monomers of the related protein. Let's call your protein "A" and the similar protein "B" (for which a hexamer is available or can be easily constructed from matrices in the PDB file). Since you didn't mention the specifics, I didn't try the whole process outlined below (not having a good example to work with), but have used the tools in other contexts. This is kind of a brute force approach. Someone else may know of a more elegant way... Making the hexamer of B: If the PDB file doesn't already have a hexamer, it should have matrix information that allows it to be constructed. If BIOMT, use Multiscale Models (under Tools... Higher-Order Structure). Initially, this doesn't copy all the atoms but just makes surfaces for computational expediency. Since you will need copies of all the atoms for matching, using the Multiscale Models GUI: select "All" chains, change their style to anything other than surface (e.g. Show... Ribbons). You can see the model IDs of the copies of B in the Model Panel (under Favorites). If SMTRY, CRYST1, or MTRIX you could use the Unit Cell tool (under Tools... Higher-Order Structure) instead of Multiscale Models. Relevant manual pages: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/multiscale/ framemulti.html http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/unitcell/ unitcell.html Matching the 6 copies of A to the monomers of B: Options for matching are the "match" command or MatchMaker (GUI under Tools... Structure Comparison, also implemented as a command, "matchmaker"). If you wanted to name specific atoms to use for fitting, you'd use the "match" command. That can be tedious, and I'd try MatchMaker first - if there is some sequence similarity, even fairly low, it usually works quite well. By default, it iterates the fit so that only residues that match well in space are ultimately used to superimpose the proteins. That means the parts that are different should not interfere with a good fit of the parts that are the same. You can adjust several parameters, but for example if B is model 0, chains A-F and copies of A are models 1-6, these commands would use the matchmaker defaults: matchmaker #0:.a #1 pair ss matchmaker #0:.b #2 pair ss matchmaker #0:.c #3 pair ss matchmaker #0:.d #4 pair ss matchmaker #0:.e #5 pair ss matchmaker #0:.f #6 pair ss (pair ss just means to use the specified chains rather than trying all chain combinations between the models) You could specify other parameters with various keywords, for example the stringency to use when iterating the fit, how much weight secondary structure should have vs. the residue types in the sequence, etc. Relevant manual pages: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/matchmaker/ matchmaker.html http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/matchmaker.html http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/match.html I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html On Apr 5, 2007, at 12:10 AM, Benjamin G.S. Horsman wrote: > Hello, > > My name is Benjamin Horsman and I am a student at the University of > Toronto. I have what should be a basic (possibly naive) question > regarding protein modelling that I was hoping you might be able to > answer for me or point my in the right direction. I have been > studying the structure of a bacterial protein complex, trying to > understand how it interacts with several known binding partners. The > complex is known to be a hexameric homomultimer. Recently the > structure of the subunit protein was solved. However, only the > monomeric form of the protein was determined, and the corresponding > PDB file does not contain coordinates for the multimer (i.e., no > BIOMT1, BIOMT2, BIOMT3 matrix values). I would like to assemble a > model of the hexameric complex for visual inspection and for some > docking studies. What would be the best way to accomplish this? > > There are several structures in the PDB of hexameric protein complexes > composed of subunits with very close structural alignment to my > protein of interest, differing in two regions of the protein that are > outside of the multimer binding regions. I believe that my protein > complex posses very similar or nearly identical geometry to these > known complexes. Is there any way to basically insert my protein into > this geometry? Can this be done in Chimera? If not, is there any > program or web server that allows this to be done? Or are you aware > of a better way to get this done? > > Thank you for your time. Any help is greatly appreciated. > > > Benjamin Horsman > _______________________________________________ > Chimera-dev mailing list > Chimera-dev(a)cgl.ucsf.edu > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-dev

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Re: [Chimera-users] viewing & comparison of multiple overlay structures
by Roberta King 04 Apr '07

04 Apr '07

Thank you Eric for your very detailed answers to my several questions. It will take me a few days to work through the suggestions. If I have any more troubles, I will contact you next week. Thanks very much, Roberta King ******************************** Roberta S. King, Ph.D. Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences College of Pharmacy University of Rhode Island http://www.uri.edu/pharmacy/faculty/king _____ From: Eric Pettersen [mailto:pett@cgl.ucsf.edu] Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 7:57 PM To: Roberta King Cc: Chimera BB Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] viewing & comparison of multiple overlay structures On Apr 3, 2007, at 1:47 PM, Roberta King wrote: First, After overlaying multiple protein (pdb) structures with ligands using MultiAlign based on alignment, how does one easily view only the overlaid ligands? [Note: I have up to 36 structures overlaid, each with 0-2 ligands.] Hi Roberta, Using the command line (Favorites->Command Line), typing "~disp; show ligand" will hide all structures and then show only the ligands. If every structure had a ligand you would only need "show ligand" since the show command hides parts of structures that aren't to be shown, but if no part of a structure matches the show criteria, the structure isn't changed -- so you need the "~disp" also to guarantee that ligand-less structures get hidden. This is also doable with the menus by Select->Structure->ligand followed by Select->Invert Selection (or shift-right-arrow instead to invert the selection in all models) and then Actions->Atoms/Bonds->hide. From there, you will probably want to select the ligand clump by control dragging the mouse across the clump (there will be a green box outline as you drag the mouse) and then use Actions->Focus to zoom in on the clump and make it the center of rotation. Secondly, can chimera then calculate a solvent-accessible closed surface for the protein cavity surrounding each ligand? Alternatively, I could calculate the cavity first, then overlay based on alignment. The goal is to view the overlaid cavities for visual comparison. It depends. If the cavity is actually completely enclosed then Chimera won't depict it. If there is some channel to the binding pocket, then it should be depicted. I say "should" because the surfacing library we are currently using (MSMS) is known to have problems when there are narrow channels in a surface. We are working on a replacement library that should solve both these problems, but it's not ready yet. Providing that MSMS doesn't fail, your pockets should be depicted. It is also sometimes possible to work around the MSMS problem by adding hydrogens to a structure or by slightly changing VDW radii (with the vdwdefine command) -- but you have to do this before any surfaces fail because after a failure surfacing won't work again until you restart Chimera. You create a surface with Actions->Surface->show or the "surf" command. If with experience you know that surfacing certain models is problematic, you can restrict the surfacing to particular models by selecting them before using the menus or providing the model numbers as arguments to the surf command (e.g. "surf #0,3-7,9"). Thirdly, can chimera calculate electrostatic charge on amino acids surrounding a binding cavity and reflect that charge onto the closed cavity surface? Can this surface be included in overlay view? You can use the Add Charge tool (in the Structure Editing category) to add partial charges to all atoms. You can then use the Render By Attribute tool (Structure Analysis category) to color the surface and/or atoms based on the partial charges. For more precise electrostatics, you can use an external tool such as APBS or Delphi to generate an electrostatic grid, and open that in Chimera and then use the Electrostatic Surface Coloring tool (Surface/Binding Analysis category) to color the surface with the grid data. You can certainly show the surface(s) with the ligands overlaid. You would probably only want to show a few surfaces at most simultaneously for understandability (see next answer). Given the number of structures, I would much appreciate any advice on how to make this manageable. If Chimera cannot do the calculations, can it import multiple structures saved by another capable software, then overlay them using MultiAlign (including the surfaces)? Depending on the speed of your computer, its amount of memory and its graphics card, working with 36 structures and their surfaces at once may or may not be satisfactory (and unless you have a real high-end machine my guess would be not). You will want to use the Model Panel (under Favorites) to control which surfaces/structures are being shown -- particularly which surfaces since I imagine that looking at more than a few would be incredibly confusing. Another thing that will help is to delete parts of structures that you aren't interested in. One trick here is to use MultAlign Viewer to select one residue in each structure (create a region by mouse dragging that covers one column in the alignment -- those residues will be selected), then select the corresponding chains by clicking into the main window and hitting the up-arrow key, then right-arrow to invert the selection, and finally Actions->Atoms/Bonds->delete to delete all atoms that are not part of chains in the alignment. Hopefully your ligands will have the same chain ID as the chain in the alignment and therefore will not be deleted. You might want to look at your ligands after you've inverted the selection and make sure none are selected for the following deletion. If some are selected, deselect them with "~select ligand". As a quasi-extreme measure you could prune away parts of the structure more than a certain distance from the ligands. Select the ligand clump and use Select->Zone... to select residues further than a certain distance from the clump and then delete the selected residues. --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu

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render several models by attribute on an absolute scale
by E. Merkley 03 Apr '07

03 Apr '07

Hello Chimera users, I am using the "Define Attribute" and "Render by Attribute" features to color structures by number of native contacts observed during a molecular dynamics simulation. I would like to compare several simulations at once, applying a single color scale to several (~6) models at once. It seems that this can't be done using a separate attribute file for each model: The "render by attribute" dialog doesn't let you change the limits past the min and max of the data in the attribute file, but each simulation (and hence each attribute file) has a different range. Any suggestions? Thanks, Eric

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viewing & comparison of multiple overlay structures
by Roberta King 03 Apr '07

03 Apr '07

Hello, I am relatively new to Chimera (and the user group), but am using it to compare ligand binding pockets for multiple (36) structures of related proteins. My proteins overlay nicely based on alignment, but I am having difficulty with the comparisons of multiple structures at once. First, After overlaying multiple protein (pdb) structures with ligands using MultiAlign based on alignment, how does one easily view only the overlaid ligands? [Note: I have up to 36 structures overlaid, each with 0-2 ligands.] Secondly, can chimera then calculate a solvent-accessible closed surface for the protein cavity surrounding each ligand? Alternatively, I could calculate the cavity first, then overlay based on alignment. The goal is to view the overlaid cavities for visual comparison. Thirdly, can chimera calculate electrostatic charge on amino acids surrounding a binding cavity and reflect that charge onto the closed cavity surface? Can this surface be included in overlay view? Given the number of structures, I would much appreciate any advice on how to make this manageable. If Chimera cannot do the calculations, can it import multiple structures saved by another capable software, then overlay them using MultiAlign (including the surfaces)? I appreciate any help provided. Roberta ******************************** Roberta S. King, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences College of Pharmacy University of Rhode Island

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error parsing ATOM record when coordinate long-ish
by Miguel Ortiz-Lombardia 02 Apr '07

02 Apr '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear all, I can't read a particular atom line that looks like: ATOM 4 CA GLY A 4 -32.686-186.362 -1.715 1.00 20.00 C I presume that the reason is that the y-coordinate forms a continuous string with the x-coordinate. However, this line complies with the PDB format; I quote from the RCBS site: 39 - 46 Real(8.3) y Orthogonal coordinates for Y in Angstroms I realize that this may be seldom a problem, but I think it should be tackled. In my case, this is a dummy atom to represent a dipole moment vector with quite a big magnitude. I have the same problem in the last and the previous snapshot versions of chimera (both in linux and MacOSX) Thank you in advance, Miguel - -- Miguel Ortiz Lombardía Centro de Investigaciones Oncológicas C/ Melchor Fernández Almagro, 3 28029 Madrid, Spain Tel. +34 912 246 900 Fax. +34 912 246 976 e-mail: molatwork(a)yahoo.es - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Et ainsi ne pouvant faire que ce qui est juste fût fort, on a fait que ce qui est fort fût juste. Blaise Pascal, Pensées -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (Darwin) iD8DBQFGD2QuF6oOrDvhbQIRApSSAJ94MwNKKsPowzYE/k61g9Yen1PArwCfSnWJ gUXmMlHVsrRuLscR3IWg/tQ= =6/U1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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error parsing ATOM record when coordinate long-ish (II)
by Miguel Ortiz-Lombardia 01 Apr '07

01 Apr '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi again, I forgot to mention that I solved my particular problem by using a bild object to depict the vector. Just thought that the parsing of the ATOM record should be fixed. Cheers, Miguel - -- Miguel Ortiz Lombardía Centro de Investigaciones Oncológicas C/ Melchor Fernández Almagro, 3 28029 Madrid, Spain Tel. +34 912 246 900 Fax. +34 912 246 976 e-mail: molatwork(a)yahoo.es - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Et ainsi ne pouvant faire que ce qui est juste fût fort, on a fait que ce qui est fort fût juste. Blaise Pascal, Pensées -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (Darwin) iD8DBQFGD2u7F6oOrDvhbQIRAvWJAJ9UiNDLaAv9yDbf6HPoNyhHVaGAmwCfd1SF ZHM9NIY3QX5mjFVqNdvvTQk= =Gbf0 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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can 2D label font be bold?
by EJ Pone 27 Mar '07

27 Mar '07

Hi, I was wondering if there's a way to make the font of 2D labels bold. I can change the font of labels associated with atoms/residues etc thru Favorites > Preferences > Background > Label font > Bold, but I can't figure out how to do this for 2D labels. The reason I am interested is that the bold font looks really appealing in labels when I make movies, but the regular font for 2D labels looks a little bit weak. Thank you for any suggestions. EJ UC Irvine

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Re: [Chimera-users] per-model clipping plane
by Thomas Goddard 26 Mar '07

26 Mar '07

Hi Jean-Francois, There is not yet a command specifically to move per-model clip planes. But you can do it using the "savepos" and "reset" commands. These save and restore the positions of all models and the per-model clip plane positions (Chimera 1.2352 and newer). For example, you can save an initial position with command savepos p1 then move a per-model clip plane with the mouse to a new position and save that savepos p2 then to smoothly go from position p1 to p2 over 100 frames use reset p1 reset p2 100 The named positions are saved in Chimera session files. Saving of per-model clip positions when you use savepos was added very recently (March 1, 2007) so you need Chimera snapshot version 1.2352 or newer. Formerly just the model orientations were remembered. Tom jean-francois menetret wrote: > > Hi Thomas, > > is it possible to move the per-model clipping plane using a > movie-related command ? > > Jean-Francois > >

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need help to run chimera 1.2304-linux.exe
by 김소연 26 Mar '07

26 Mar '07

2 1

saving image as stereo pair
by Boaz Shaanan 25 Mar '07

25 Mar '07

Hi, It seems to me as if the stereo pair produced when I select 'stereo pair' in save image is crossed-eye stereo (not wall-eye), or is my brain fooling me ? I certainly see a left-handed alpha helix, residues in the front going to the back and D-amino acids when I use my stereoviewer. Please advise. Thanks. Boaz Boaz Shaanan, Ph.D. Associate Professor Dept. of Life Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105 Israel Phone: 972-8-647-2220 ; Fax: 646-1710 Skype: boaz.shaanan‎

3 4

Counting atoms within density map contour
by Tom Goddard 23 Mar '07

23 Mar '07

Hi Gary, You asked yesterday whether it is possible to count the atoms lying outside the contour surface of a EM map after fitting. This can be done although it currently requires a few steps. Here's how. 1) fit the atomic model into the map as desired. 2) Use menu entry Tools / Volume Data / Values at Atom Positions, choose the molecule and map and press the Histogram button. This shows a histogram of the map values interpolated at the atom positions. 3) Press the "Select" tab on the Render / Select by Attribute dialog and choose Attribute "value_mymap.xxx", move the rightmost green bar on the histogram to match the contour level, then press the Apply button. This procedure selects the atoms at lower density levels than the map contour level and you can see the number of atoms selected in the lower right corner of the main graphics window. You can press the up arrow key a few times to select all atoms in the molecule to see the total number of atoms. I show a picture below fitting 1i84.pdb into myosin.map where 2727 of 16070 atoms lie outside the contour surface. I colored the selected atoms outside the contour blue in the picture. Tom

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osx headers
by Randy Heiland 23 Mar '07

23 Mar '07

Out of curiosity, what is different in the ppc and intel headers for 1.2349? I see that both are available on the Source download page. -Randy

2 1

installing chimera over an older chimera install?
by Sabuj Pattanayek 23 Mar '07

23 Mar '07

Hi, On *nix is it safe to install a newer version of chimera over a previous installation? Will this break something in the newer installation? The reason why I ask is the trouble of maintaining externally installed plugins. We could make a wrapper for the .exe unzipsfx install and re-build symlinks to an external directory of chimera plugins in the share directory, but this seems like too much trouble especially if just installing over an old installation should just "work". Thanks, Sabuj

2 2

Two transparent models and memory leaks
by Thomas Goddard 22 Mar '07

22 Mar '07

C Akey report problems with display of two transparent models and excessive memory use and crashes when saving images. ------------ Tom- Sorry to bother you but I am having serious problems with Chimera while trying to make figures for a paper. After you fixed the sessions number problem, so that they are retained in the same numbered slots from one session to the next, I found that my most recent sessions made with this version, would not work properly when I wanted two different displayed volumes to have transparencies different from 1. This worked in earlier versions and then I started over with a new session, imported everything and it is working again. Maddening. If you have a ribbon within a volume and try to vary the transparency, it almost disappears instead of having a gradual blending effect (see attached figures A,D panels). I am using a PC under XP with 1Gb mem and 512 GB graphics card. I have checked and memory is not the problem. {However, if you quit a session then open another session, Chimera does not give the memory back to the system, so your memory use soars, YOU MUST QUIT BEFORE OPENING A NEW SESSION.} Here is another killer bug: When you record an image full screen, about half the time you get a fatal error in pythonw.exe, it wants you to contact Microsoft and then Chimera crashes losing everything. The error from chimera reads "failed 1073741891" but there is no chance to report the bug. So after battling to get to the point of recording images, the program quits on me about half the time. By the way, when Chimera is shown full screen on our new Linux machine, it doesn't clearly show all the icons on the left hand side of the screen, they are partly occluded. sorry about the bugs but its starting to get to me. cheers C Akey

1 3

New Chimera molecular surface code
by Tom Goddard 22 Mar '07

22 Mar '07

Miguel Ortiz Lombardia asks when Chimera will be able to compute solvent accessible surfaces. -------- Original Message -------- Hi Tom, I would like to know if there has been any advancement in changing the surfaces code. I know you had plans to write your own so that chimera would not rely on msms, and I am very interested in this development because it would allow the use of solvent accessible surfaces apart from molecular surfaces. The former are more appropriate, among other questions, to map electrostatic potential maps (less local effects). I would be happy to test around, if you need testers. Unfortunately my programming skills are quite minimal. But I'll be patient anyway ;-) Thanks to all of you for this great tool! Cheers, Miguel

2 3

MODELLER interface
by Elaine Meng 21 Mar '07

21 Mar '07

Hi Stefano, No arguments here - we have talked about it and I've expressed a need for it for years. The problem is that there are many other features that seem to be at least as high priority, and limited time and manpower available. To name only a few of the things in progress: energy minimization, morphing, interaction with dendrograms (along with sequence alignments), more display preferences, more animation commands, and producing ray-traced images. There is a "model loops" tool that interfaces with MODELLER, but it only produces alternate conformations of loops that are already in a structure. That was implemented because people in the MODELLER (Sali) group here wanted it the most, and it needs work - e.g. currently there is no convenient way to merge a chosen loop conformation back into the structure. Nevertheless, this is another important item and I will share your message to help ensure it does not fall off "the list." I imagine any validation tools would be farther down on the list than the interface for comparative modeling, although we do already have a tool that finds clashes and close contacts. Elaine On Mar 20, 2007, at 10:05 PM, Stefano Ciurli wrote: > Elaine, > > following our discussion on Chimera and DelPhi, and these recent > mails on modeling, don't you think that it would be nice to > interface Chimera to Modeller, as the latter one is one of the most > used software to do homolog modeling? The interface could be a sort > of way to funnel into Modeller the alignment and the structure of > the template(s) for Modeller to use and then read back into Chimera > the results of the modeling, with tools to establish the quality of > the model itself (I am thinking of Prosa, Procheck or WHATIF) > > Regards > Stefano > -- > ____________________________________________ > > Stefano Ciurli > Professor of Chemistry > Laboratory of Bioinorganic Chemistry > Department of Agro-Environmental Science and Technology > University of Bologna > Viale Giuseppe Fanin, 40 > I-40127 Bologna > Italy > Phone: +39-051-209-6204 > Fax: +39-051-209-6203 > > http://www.cerm.unifi.it > http://www.isa.unibo.it/ISA/ > > "Fatti non foste a viver come bruti, > ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza" > Dante Alighieri - Inferno - Canto XXVI > > "Ihr seid bestimmt, nicht Tieren gleich zu leben, > Nein, Tugend zu erringen und Erkenntnis" > "Ye were not form'd to live the life of brutes, > But virtue to pursue and knowledge high"

1 0

sequence & structure in Chimera
by Elaine Meng 20 Mar '07

20 Mar '07

Hi Abhijit, If I understand correctly, there were two questions here: > One more question is it possible to take a protein sequence of a gene, > part of which is cloned, crystallized and 3d structure is available, > and superimposes the protein sequence with the reported crystal > structure? Or how can you model a protein sequence to generate a > putative structure, for the part that hasn’t been crystallized so far, In Chimera, (1) can you associate a structure with a sequence that is read in from a separate file? short answer: yes, if that sequence is in an alignment (2) can you do comparative modeling (create a 3D model of an unknown structure starting from a known structure that is thought to be similar)? short answer: no, except simplistic replacement of a few side chains with the command "swapaa" I'll start with #2: Chimera does not do comparative modeling or threading different sequences on a known structure. Besides the approaches mentioned by Eric (getting a model from MODBASE or using the MODELLER program to make the model yourself), listed below are several web servers that might be useful. I believe the first two replace side chains while the others perform more complete modeling (can handle insertions/deletions and adjust the backbone). It's been a while since I used any of these, however, so you should read any author-provided information. - SCWRL server http://www1.jcsg.org/scripts/prod/scwrl/serve.cgi - Maxsprout server http://www.ebi.ac.uk/maxsprout/ - ModWeb server (requires registration) http://alto.compbio.ucsf.edu/modweb-cgi/main.cgi - RAPPER server (registration encouraged) http://mordred.bioc.cam.ac.uk/~rapper/ - PSIPRED server http://bioinf.cs.ucl.ac.uk/psipred/ - Swiss-Model server http://swissmodel.expasy.org//SWISS-MODEL.html Now question #1. You already saw the Sequence tool, which shows the exact sequence of any peptide or nucleotide chains in structures open in Chimera. However, you might want to read in a sequence from a separate file and associate it with the structure to allow the same kinds of crosstalk (a selection on the sequence selects the structure and vice versa). You can do that, if you have an alignment of that sequence with one or more additional sequences. These other sequences don't need to have any structures, and your sequence of interest does not have to match the structure exactly to associate with it (often there are point mutations, or the sequence is for a close homolog of the structure, or the structure is missing a few residues here and there, or is only one domain from the whole sequence). Here's a list of the sequence alignment formats that can be read (you can just use File... Open in the Chimera menu): http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/filetypes.html#alignment and the "Sequence-Structure Association" section in this page may be useful: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/ multalignviewer/framemav.html I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html

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Motion callback functions
by Tom Goddard 20 Mar '07

20 Mar '07

Hi Karin, I've attached some example Python code that monitors the motion of models in Chimera. It registers an OpenState trigger. For your case you might update the color on your plane when the plane moves but the map does not move. Let me know if more details would be helpful. Tom Karin Gross wrote: > Hi Tom, > > i have a question concerning rotation and translation of surface models in > chimera. > I want the user to be able to rotate/translate my plane via mouse, but run the > computation of coloring and do the coloring during the movement. > Is it possible to register a python callback for this, and get the > rotation/translation information? > > Thanks > -Karin > > # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ # Example code that monitors the motion of models in Chimera. # # Each Chimera Model object has an openState attribute whose value is an # OpenState object. The OpenState object has attributes xform, active, # cofr (center of rotation), bbox (bounding box). These are defined in the # Chimera C++ header file OpenModels.h. (Chimera C++ headers can be downloaded # from http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/sourcecode.html) # # This example code monitors changes in the OpenState objects for all models. # class Monitor_Motion: def __init__(self): from chimera import triggers h = triggers.addHandler('OpenState', self.xform_changed_cb, None) self.handler = h def xform_changed_cb(self, trigger_name, call_data, trigger_data): if 'transformation change' in trigger_data.reasons: # The transformation matrix of some model has changed. from chimera import openModels mlist = openModels.list() # All open models. for open_state in trigger_data.modified: models = filter(lambda m: m.openState == open_state, mlist) if models: names = ', '.join(map(lambda m: m.name, models)) print names, 'moved' print open_state.xform def stop_monitoring(self): from chimera import triggers triggers.deleteHandler('OpenState', self.handler) self.handler = None # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ # mm = Monitor_Motion()

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Electrostatic coloring on slice surface
by Tom Goddard 20 Mar '07

20 Mar '07

Hi Boaz, When you color a surface (e.g. GRASP surface) using electrostatic potential with the Surface Color tool it does show the correct colors on the slice if you are clipping the surface. This is described in the guide to volume data display http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/tutorials/volumetour/volumetour.html#colorc… The colors are only assigned at the triangle vertices of the slice surface which can be seen by switching to "mesh" display in the Surface Capping dialog. To get finer resolution coloring increase the "Mesh subdivision factor" in the Surface Capping dialog from 1.0 to say 3.0 (giving ~9x more vertices). Press the Enter key after changing the number to see the effect. Tom Boaz Shaanan wrote: > Hi Tom, > > Thanks a lot. While we're at it I have another question related to > surface rendering. In the 'colour surface' window there is button that > says 'colour sliced ...'. Does that mean that if I covered a molecule > with surface and mapped a Delphi calculated potential map onto it, if > I then slice into the molecule, the surface covering this slice will > show the potential correctly ? That would be very nice but I'm just > wondering whether I can believe what I see. Grasp used to do this > nicely but I'd like to use chimera (and grasp is dead anyway as far as > I'm concerned - I don't have SGI's). I'd appreciate your input. > > Cheers, > > Boaz

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Re: [Chimera-users] pdb-l: structure based sequence alignment
by Eric Pettersen 16 Mar '07

16 Mar '07

Hi Sona, Before getting to your question, just wanted to mention that the post you quoted isn't accurate anymore: Chimera can incorporate structureless sequences into alignments as of the last production release (October). Once you have a structure-based alignment (or any alignment really) showing in Multalign Viewer you can add sequences to it using MAV's Edit menu. I don't know of any non-madness-inducing way in Chimera of superimposing 50+ ligands without writing a script. There are two kinds of scripts you could write. One is a text file containing the exact same commands you would type at Chimera's command line. You would give the file a suffix of .com or .cmd and open it using File...Open or the "open" command. The other type is a Python script, also a text file, which requires a little bit of learning but offers the ability to use loops -- quite helpful in this scenario. A Python script file would have a .py suffix and can be opened the same way as a Chimera-command script. For purposes of the example scripts below, I'm going to assume the ligands have the same residue name (FMN in the example), that there is only one occurrence of the residue per file, and the ligand atoms have the same name. PDBs you want to use that don't match these criteria you could do by hand -- hopefully there would just be a few. On the assumption that you have a mix of NMR and crystallographic structures, the script will delete hydrogens, yielding a heavy-atom only RMSD (probably a good idea anyway if there are any methyl groups). Lastly, I'll assume you have a reference structure to match onto already open in model #0 before you run the script. The Chimera-command script would be something like this: open 1jhf; del H; match #1:FMN #0:FMN; close 1 open 1kef; del H; match #1:FMN #0:FMN; close 1 open 1rd9; del H; match #1:FMN #0:FMN; close 1 etc. For the Python version I'll make one further assumption: that you have the PDB IDs listed in a file named "pdbs". The Python version would be: from chimera import runCommand # use runCommand to execute Chimera commands f = open("pdbs", "r") # open file containing PDB IDs for line in f: # read through file pdbID = line.strip() # remove trailing newline from text runCommand("open " + pdbID + "; del H; match #1:FMN #0:FMN; close 1") f.close() # close file The indentation for the lines that follow the "for" statement indicate that they are to be executed as the loop. The lack of indentation for the f.close() indicates that it is not part of the loop -- it is executed once the loop finishes. --Eric On Mar 15, 2007, at 6:54 PM, Sona Vasudevan wrote: > Hello Eric, > > Have a few questions about Chimera. I would like to superimpose > just the ligands bound to complexes. In this case I would like to > basically get a rms deviation of 50+ ligand co-ordinates (same > ligand from different PDBs). I now Chimera's match could do it but > is there a way a easier way to superimpose ligands? > > Thanks! > > Sona > > > On 2/6/06, Eric Pettersen <pett(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: > Hi Sona, > UCSF Chimera (www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera) can certainly > construct a > structure-based sequence alignment, but can't incorporate > structureless > sequences into the alignment so maybe it's not what you're looking > for. > But just in case, here are the URLs for Chimera's Match->Align tool > (which creates the alignment) and MatchMaker tool (which superimposes > structures): > > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/matchalign/ > matchalign.html > http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/matchmaker/ > matchmaker.html > > --Eric > > Eric Pettersen > UCSF Computer Graphics Lab >

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Problems using Collaboratory
by slaton 13 Mar '07

13 Mar '07

Hi, Having some problems using Collaboratory mode. Some scenarios: 1. When attempting to host a collaboratory session between linux hosts on the same subnet, with another linux box running the hub, no one can join the session. I get the error connecting that suggests checking your firewall settings. None of the machines have iptables running, and since they are on the same subnet that should rule out border router/firewall issues. 2. If using a Mac OS X machine (PPC) to run the hub -- on a different subnet than the linux boxes, but within the same building -- the first linux box can join the hub. A second linux box on the same subnet fails with the same error as in 1) above. This can be replicated every time. Neither linux boxes are running iptables or any other firewall, they have nearly identical hardware and are running the same distro/version/patchlevel. 3. If the MOSX box (where the hub is running) now joins the session with the 1st linux box, they can chat with each other and see either others' pointers. However if the connected user on the linux box opens a model (for my tests, i used a SPIDER volume), the connected user on the MOSX box cannot see it. An error pops up on the linux box reading: "Error processing trigger: "Camera": AttributeError: '_chimera.Camera' object has no attribute 'viewDistance' Rotating/moving the model on the linux box triggers this error on the MOSX box: "Error processing trigger: "collaboratory": ValueError: unopen model Additionally, while sending chat messages from the MOSX box works, it also throws errors like this: "Error processing trigger; "Chat command": TclError: invalid command name ".38462968.47381600.47395144.47395584....[etc] 4. If i reverse scenarios here -- hosting on Linux and joining from MOSX (and the host machine) -- the results are nearly the same. Each user can chat and see the other's cursor, but as soon as one user loads a model it starts throwing errors like the ones mentioned above. After which, chat mode no longer works. So.....any known problems with collaboratory in this release, or any tips on troubleshooting these problems? All tests were performed using Chimera snapshot release 1.2352, i386 version (linux) and X11 version (MOSX). thanks slaton Slaton Lipscomb Nogales Lab, Howard Hughes Medical Institute http://cryoem.berkeley.edu

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Re: [Chimera-users] Chimera - Question
by Elaine Meng 13 Mar '07

13 Mar '07

Hi Peter, No problem - the features are documented, but there is no tutorial that includes adding a sequence. I tested the following with the most recent snapshot (1.2352, March 2007). (1) Open your sequence alignment in Chimera. I just found the following problem when testing the procedure: *if you created the sequence alignment with Match->Align, it is necessary to save it to a file (File... Save As from the Multalign Viewer menu, pick any format), quit from the alignment, and reopen it in Chimera (File... Open in the main menu) before you can add a sequence to it* ...this will be fixed in the next release, however. If the sequence alignment was already read from a file, no extra step is needed. (2) Choose "Edit... Add Sequence" from the Multalign Viewer menu and paste the new sequence in the dialog. Enter a name for the sequence, adjust the alignment parameters as desired, and click OK. Look at the alignment and decide whether it seems reasonable. If not, you can use "Edit... Delete Sequences/Gaps" to remove the sequence and try realigning it with "Edit... Add Sequence" and different alignment parameters. For example, if the sequence is fairly distantly related to the others, you may have better luck with blosum-30 than blosum-62. Editing is described here http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/ multalignviewer/multalignviewer.html#editing (3) If they are not already open, open one or more structures that associate with the sequence alignment. (4) Once your new sequence is aligned with the others to your satisfaction, you can draw out boxes on the alignment using the mouse. If the boxes enclose parts of the sequence(s) that are associated with the structure(s), the corresponding parts of the structures will be highlighted (selected). Or, you can go the other direction by selecting parts of the structures and seeing where they are in the alignment. These forms of crosstalk are described here http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/ multalignviewer/multalignviewer.html#crosstalk and in the "Sequences and Structures" tutorial. You can also show the secondary structure assignments on the alignment with "Structure... Secondary Structure... show actual" (for those sequences associated with structures) or "show predicted" (for sequences without structures) Alternatively, if you already have a sequence alignment that includes your sequence of interest plus others that will associate with structures, you can just open them all in Chimera and skip straight to #4. Sometimes I get alignments from databases such as Pfam. I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html On Mar 13, 2007, at 2:27 PM, Peter Murphy wrote: > Thanks for the quick response Dr. Meng, > > Thanks to your helpful tutorial, I now know how to align two > structures and get an alignment. But I am interested in the ability > to add a sequence (that > doesn't have a structure) to the alignment and see if/where parts > of it map onto the structures. Is there such a tutorial on your > website, or might you be able to give me a quick rundown :P > > Thanks again > > -- > Peter Murphy, B.Sc., M.Sc Candidate > Atlantic Research Center > Dalhousie University > Halifax, Nova Scotia, > Canada

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Chimera - Question
by Peter Murphy 13 Mar '07

13 Mar '07

Hi, I have a quick question about your program. Normally (on a day to day basis) I use fairly basic features of chimera (coloring, etc) to produce pictures of crystal structure images (for presentations, papers, etc). Rarely do I have to use the more advanced features of chimera (Solvent accessible surface area, distance calculations, etc) so I don`t have a good idea of the limits of your program. Thus, I figured I would check to see if what I wanted to do is out of the scope of your program. I have a few crystal structures which I want to align (I now understand how to do this based on your online tutorial (thanks)), but what I really want to do is feed a third structure into the consensus structure (or if there is no consensus structure, just feed a known sequence into a known crystal structure to see if the sequence could form that structure. Is there anyway to do this in your program.. Thanks for any help you may be able to provide, -- Peter Murphy, B.Sc., M.Sc Candidate Atlantic Research Center Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

2 1

Rotated density maps
by Thomas Goddard 13 Mar '07

13 Mar '07

I added two Chimera commands "newmap" and "addmaps" that allow extracting a rectangular piece of a density map with axes that are rotated relative to the original map. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/experimental/resample_map/resamplemap.html This is useful for extracting substructures from electron microscope tomograms. It is not part of current Chimera distributions but can be obtained as a separate plug-in from the experimental features web page: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/experimental/experimental.html It is called "Resample Map Commands" on that web page because data values from the original map are interpolated (i.e. resampled) on the new rotated grid. Tom

1 0

~longbond
by Boaz Shaanan 12 Mar '07

12 Mar '07

Hi, I'm trying to use ~longbond to hide a long bond in the Calpha trace of a model (270-280 in ijsc_a) but the bond refuses to disappear. The bond is not there when atoms are shown in full and only shows up in the Calpha trace (atoms->show chain trace). I type ~longbond in the command line after the trace is on and nothing happens. What am I missing ? I'd appreciate your advice. Thanks, Boaz Boaz Shaanan, Ph.D. Associate Professor Dept. of Life Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105 Israel Phone: 972-8-647-2220 ; Fax: 646-1710 Skype: boaz.shaanan‎

2 1

Re: [Chimera-users] independent movement
by Elaine Meng 12 Mar '07

12 Mar '07

Hi Michel, namesel is a newer command added after version 1.2304 - get the recent snapshot to use this command: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/download.html#snapshots The release notes for this snapshot list what has changed since 1.2304: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/1.2349/docs/relnotes/snapshot.html The links I included in previous messages were to "development" documentation, which will always be newer than what you have (although mostly the same if you have a recent version). The documentation included with a download is more synchronized - you can access and search your local copy of the documentation using the Chimera Help menu. ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html On Mar 11, 2007, at 3:32 PM, michel dedeo wrote: > Elaine and Tom > > Thanks for your help! Savepos and reset will let me do exactly what I > want. It is good to know there are two selection commands as well. > > I have one more question. I can name a selection using the menu but > when I try to use the 'namesel' command I get an error: Unrecognized > command: "namesel". Does this command still exist? > > I am using production version 1 build 2304 2006/10/23 on Windows. > > Thanks again, > > Michel Dedeo > > > On 3/9/07, Tom Goddard <goddard(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: >> Hi Michel, >> >> I think Elaine's suggestion about using the savepos and reset >> commands >> is the best approach. >> >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/savepos.html >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/reset.html >> >> >> The "movemodel" command envisioned in a previous mailing list entry >> >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2006-June/000843.html >> >> does not exist. I think I would make two simpler commands if some new >> ones were needed that look like: >> >> spin #1 0.3 0.4 0.5 90 20 >> >> (spin model number 1 about axis (.3,.4,.5) by 90 degrees over 20 >> frames) >> >> slide #1 5.2 8.2 3.1 20 >> >> (translate model number 1 by (5.2,8.2,3.1) over 20 frames). These >> would >> work in screen coordinates by default. But using local coordinates of >> the model or local coordinates of a second model would also be handy: >> >> spin #1 0.3 0.4 0.5 90 20 local #2 >> >> (spin about axis specified in local coordinate system of model #2) >> >> slide #1 5.2 8.2 3.1 20 local >> >> (translate with vector specified in local coordinates of the model). >> >> These local coordinate versions allow the motion to stay the same >> if you >> rotate the whole scene. Neither the spin nor slide command currently >> exists. There are move, turn, and roll commands in Chimera that have >> more limited capabilities, only allowing rotation axes and shifts >> to be >> x, y, or z screen axes. >> >> Tom >> >> >> >> >> >> >>

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Re: [Chimera-users] surface display
by Tom Goddard 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

Hi Markus, This is a problem with the surface calculation library MSMS used by Chimera. It crashes on specific PDB files. It is described more in this post: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2006-February/000685.html which suggest you use Chimera command vdwdefine * * +0.01 to make the atom radii 1/100 Angstrom bigger which may circumvent the crash. Trying to surfce fewer residues generally does not fix the problem because Chimera still computes the whole surface and then just limits the display to the few residues you selected. Here is the Chimera bug report about this problem. http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?cmd=view&pr=1295&database=chime… Tom Markus Voehler wrote: > Tom > > I have installed the new version and the same thing happens. Here is > what I do: > 1) open pdb (3003 atoms) > 2) display round ribbon, hide atoms/bonds > 3) action --> surface --> show also tried it on a smaller selection of > a few residues. > > I have submitted the chimera error report and have attached the crash > report. Any ideas would be appreciated. > > Markus > > > On Mar 9, 2007, at 1:43 PM, Tom Goddard wrote: > >> Hi Markus, >> >> Is your problem with molecular surfaces (menu Actions / Surface / >> show) or contour surfaces of volume data? >> >> In either case you should first try a newer version of Chimera. I >> recommend trying the snapshot 1.2352 released this week (scroll down >> the Chimera download page a little). >> >> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/download.html >> >> Tom >> >

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viewing VRML files in chimera
by preethi＠bu.edu 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

Hi, I used an SGI compiled "ivtovrml" program to convert a .iv file to .wrl file in order to view it in Chimera. I got an error, not in VRML97 formatError near line 1: and this was repeated a few times. Is there any other program that is available to convert it to the right VRML format readable by Chimera? I did a little searching on the web and coudnt find one. Thanks in advance, Preethi.

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surface display
by Markus Voehler 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

I have a PowerBook G4 and am not able to display surfaces on that laptop (it works fine on the SGI). I am running OSX 10.4.8 and chimera 1.2303 (1006/10/23). Does anybody have similar issues or know what to do about it. Other functionalities of chimera work just fine. Markus

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independent movement
by michel dedeo 09 Mar '07

09 Mar '07

I would like to use Chimera to make a movie in which multiple models or chains move in different directions simultaneously. The movie illustrating myosin thick filament analysis (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/animations/movies/myomovie.mov) is a good example. I am not sure if this post (http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-users/2006-June/000843.html) on interpolated model motion is relevant, or if the 'movemodel' command imagined there actually exists in some patch that I do not have. If that proves too difficult (I have little programming experience) I would like to be able to hold one model or chain stationary while moving another. I can do this by using the model panel to make one model inactive while entering a movement command to move the active models, but I have not found a way to do this through the command line. Is there a command to activate/inactivate models, or another way to move some models/chains and not others? Thank you for your help. Michel Dedeo Francis Lab Department of Chemistry UC Berkeley

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Stereo using X11 versions
by Eduardo Sanz Garcia 08 Mar '07

08 Mar '07

I have had problems using the stereo capabilites of chimera using stereo glasses. I have two computers: * Mac G5 Quadro PPC + Nvidia FX 4000 with the latest drivers + Chimera X11 version 1.2304 * Fedora Enterprise 2 x Intel Xeon + Nvidia FX 3500 with the latest drivers + Chimera Linux 32-bit version 1.2349 The stereo hardware is correctly installed. I have other applications (X11 pymol) that display stereo nicely in both systems. On the mac, I have been able to display things in stereo but it crashes or displays weird stuff on the screen. On linux, I haven't been able to display things in stereo. Any suggestions? Thank you very much.

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