- ChimeraX-users - RBVI Mailing Lists

Alternative locations
by Michael Bruist 15 Aug '22

15 Aug '22

In a demonstration page for students, I wish to show how the presence of the 2’OH on a ribonucleotide creates a clash at the active site of DNA polymerase. We are also trying to see if 2’OH’s create clashes within the primer. I have created a PDB file with deoxyribose as alternative location A and ribose as alternative location B. This works in original Chimera, but I am not getting it to work in ChimeraX. I am not able to specify the alternative atoms by their A and B designations. I do not see alternative locations in the hierarchy under target specification in the documentation. My PDB file is attached. Residues 106-113 have alternate locations included. The command “altlocs change A :113" does not seem to change anything, nor does changing the selection buttons in the Altexplorer. Mike Bruist mbruist(a)sju.edu

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docked UI
by Pranav Shah 13 Aug '22

13 Aug '22

Hi Team, Is there a way to make sure that some UI elements (eg. the chimerax python console) that I have enabled by calling from a custom startup script are pinned into the main window instead of appearing as floating windows? Best, Pranav -- Pranav Shah Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Division of Structural Biology, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK

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ISOLDE download
by Jason Mears 12 Aug '22

12 Aug '22

I am trying to download the ISOLDE bundle for my ChimeraX software. I have been unsuccessful thus far. The download starts, but it never completes the download. I have tried a number of times and logged in using my university credentials thinking that this might help. Nothing yet. I am running OS Monterrey (v 12.5). Any advice is appreciated. Thanks. - Jason Mears -- Associate Professor of Pharmacology Graduate Program Director, Pharmacology Center for Mitochondrial Diseases Case Western Reserve Univ SOM 216-368-3348 jason.mears(a)case.edu <mears.jason(a)case.edu>

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Drag select blanks view window
by Daniel Asarnow 10 Aug '22

10 Aug '22

In ChimeraX 1.3 and now 1.4 releases, I have an issue where control-click dragging to select causes the 3D viewer frame to black out. Everything else functions normally, including the select itself, although it is very difficult to use since the structure can't be seen. The select box *is* visible, but it's magenta instead of green. Afterwards things go back to normal if something was box selected, but if nothing was boxed then the 3D viewer remains blacked out until an interaction like moving the models/camera takes place. I'm on a 2021 M1 MacBook Pro with macOS 12.4. I was wondering if others have experienced this and if it's an M1 issue as this is the only machine I've seen exhibit the problem. Best, -da

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Distance between two residues
by Kwangjun Lee 07 Aug '22

07 Aug '22

Hello, Do you have a command that measures the distance between two residues? For example, I have a dimer model, and I want to measure the distance between /A:100 and /B:200 Thanks! Kwangjun Lee Ph.D. Candidate Department of Biomedical Sciences Florida State University College of Medicine 1115 W. Call Street Tallahassee, FL 32306 Tel: (850) 491-6985 Email: kwangjun.lee(a)med.fsu.edu<mailto:hyojeong.yong@med.fsu.edu>

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maps not on same grid in new ChimeraX?
by Moritz, Michelle 06 Aug '22

06 Aug '22

Hello, I recently updated my ChimeraX to version1.4(2022-06-03). It seems that now when I open cryoEM maps they are not always opening on the same grid, although they have the same box and pixel size. As I recall, in previous versions of Chimera, maps with the same box and pixel size would open in a coordinated, overlapping fashion, and they would move together when manipulated. Is there a preference that I need to set in the latest version in order for this to happen? Thanks for your help, Michelle

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Find Residues From Specified Residue Numbers Help
by Myers, Jonathan 05 Aug '22

05 Aug '22

Dear ChimeraX Users, I'm learning how to use the Python API and I found the set of ChimeraX recipes and am trying to use the code featured on the "Find Residues From Specified Residue Numbers" page. I've run into the following issue: NameError: name 'structure' is not defined. I'm not sure what I should be using as an input for the "structure.residues" argument so I have not changed that input. What "structure" should I be specifying? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Shosholoza, Jonathan Myers

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Color by Chemical Shift Perturbations
by Nadun Chanaka Karunatilleke R Wasala Mudiyanselage Vihare 05 Aug '22

05 Aug '22

Hi admin, I am trying to color the protein surface based on the chemical shift perturbations. As mentioned in the example published on March 15th, 2021, I was able to color the surface. However, I needed to add 6 levels, and I failed to do so. It was possible to define the levels and colors in chimera but I failed to do so in chimerax. Is there a way to solve this? Thank you Nadun Nadun Karunatilleke Ph.D. Candidate Dr. James Choy's Lab Department of Biochemistry Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry Western University London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C1

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Use different distances for several marker sets
by SHIQING LIAO 04 Aug '22

04 Aug '22

Dear community, I'm wondering if there is any way for me to color a volume density with different distances from several marker sets. Thank you for your help! Best, Shiqing

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Time-efficient python code for obtaining coordinates of atoms
by Shubham Devesh Ramgoolam 03 Aug '22

03 Aug '22

Hi all, I hope you are doing well. I am looking for a time-efficient way of obtaining the coordinates of specified residues. I cannot use the command getcrd as I need these coordinates in a python script for defining geometric objects (getcrd prints the output to the log). My attempt at this consisted of selecting all of the specified residues via run(session, ‘sel ...’), accessing that selection using selected_residues(session), and then, extracting the coordinates using .atoms.coords. The issue here is that run(session, ‘sel ...’) slows down if there are lots of specified residues. I tried bypassing the command ‘sel’ by first importing AtomSpecArg from chimerax.core.commands.atomspec and then using AtomSpecArg.parse('my residue_ID', session)[0].evaluate(session).atoms[0]. However, this is even slower. Regards, Shubham Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows

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Error message
by Kwangjun Lee 03 Aug '22

03 Aug '22

Hello, I was trying to find residues within the dimerization interface. I have watched the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMcjEecFHaI&t=17s [https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TMcjEecFHaI/maxresdefault.jpg]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMcjEecFHaI&t=17s> Evaluating AlphaFold protein-protein binding with ChimeraX<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMcjEecFHaI&t=17s> We show how to display AlphaFold predicted aligned error for residues at the binding interface between two proteins, encapsulin and ferritin, using ChimeraX.... www.youtube.com and follow the instructions but I got an error message and it seems others have the same issue with me. Is it a bug or did I do something wrong?? Thanks! Kwangjun Lee Ph.D. Candidate Department of Biomedical Sciences Florida State University College of Medicine 1115 W. Call Street Tallahassee, FL 32306 Tel: (850) 491-6985 Email: kwangjun.lee(a)med.fsu.edu<mailto:hyojeong.yong@med.fsu.edu>

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ChimeraX change chain IDs tool not available
by Rish, Anthony 02 Aug '22

02 Aug '22

Hello, I created a protein model with 9 separate chains and fit it to my experimental cryo-EM map. However, once I saved the new model, relative to the map, the chains were renamed to 1.1/A, 1.2/A… 1.9/A. This is no good since all chains now are labeled as A in the PDB file and programs like PyMol can’t tell the difference between the chains. I checked the ChimeraX user guide and there is supposed to be a tool for this exact problem called change chain IDs under the Tools->Structure Editing tabs, using the command changechains, but the tool is nowhere to be found. I’m running the current build of ChimeraX as of 8/2/22. How can I change the chain IDs of my model? Thanks, Anthony

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Sorting the required molecules in cvc file
by Dmitry Semchonok 02 Aug '22

02 Aug '22

Dear colleagues, I would like to find out about the possibilities. I have a model that contains apart from the other data, the pigment molecules – chlorophylls, carotenoids etc. Is there a way sort certain types of molecules in a *.cvc file by chimeraX so that the following information will be shown? Mol,Label,Element,X,Y,Z CHL,n 606,NC,267.342,151.989,253.363 CHL,n 606,MG,266.202,151.941,255.073 CHL,n 607,NB,275.512,153.952,252.428 CLA,n 610,MG,273.005,139.807,270.918 CLA,n 611,NB,288.916,127.885,266.725 Thank you! Kind regards, Dmitry

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Superposing protein structures
by Alicia Gardiol 02 Aug '22

02 Aug '22

We have experimental protein structures in PDB, and Alpha Fold predicted structures. Which is the best software to superpose these structures using a MAC computer. - Two different predicted proteins (predicted 1 to predicted 2) and - Same protein predicted and experimental (predicted 1 to experimental 1) Thank you and best wishes. Alicia Gardiol, PhD

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Re: [chimerax-users] Model panel for multi-state objects of dimeric protein
by Elaine Meng 01 Aug '22

01 Aug '22

Hi Enrico, I haven't figured out why this doesn't work on your example (omitted since mailing to the list): close #1 & ~ #1.5 However, this works: delete #1 & ~ #1.5 Also if you didn't have other models (#2 etc.) that you were trying to keep you could just use delete ~#1.5 I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco > On Aug 1, 2022, at 6:39 AM, Enrico Martinez <jmsstarlight(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Hello Elaine, > I just faced the same problem that has been indicated in this topic > Thi time I am dealing with the monomeric multi-model complex obtained > from docking. > Here is the example of a pdb file consisted of 80+ docking poses. To > keep only the 1.5 sub-modeli've tried to use > close #1 & ~ #1.5 > but this produced nothing, while for other pdbs it works fine. Could > you tell me what's wrong with it? > Many thanks in advance > Cheers > Enrico

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Reduce figure size for export for publication
by Fossati, Andrea 01 Aug '22

01 Aug '22

Hi, How to best export figure at high-ish resolution to then add it to an already made illustrator panel? After some googling seems vector-based export is not possible so what is the recommended format and which resolution is best for 3x3 inch illustrator panel? At the moment I am exporting as TIFF with transparent background and size 5000 and supersampled 4 times to keep high res but the file has like 15Mb per structure which is not feasible/handy to modify. What is the suggested solution for paper figures? Best, Andrea Fossati, Ph.D Krogan Lab

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How to estimate 2dlabels fading?
by Edoardo D Imprima 01 Aug '22

01 Aug '22

Hi, Could you please explain more how the frames option works when changing 2dlabels? Let’s say I have 100 frames and I wish to have an arrow to appear at frame 10 for 5 frames? Many thanks in advance, Edoardo ------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Edoardo D'Imprima Postdoctoral fellow Structural and Computational Biology Unit EMBL Heidelberg - Mahamid Group Meyerhofstraße 1 69117 Heidelberg Germany Phone: +49 6221 387-8531

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Side view in command line
by HONG ZHAN 31 Jul '22

31 Jul '22

Hi all, I would like to setup a movie sequence using cxc file. It is very useful to setup in the UI window, however, any tricks could I use to set the clip plane in the command line to generate a view as in the attached picture? So that I can run my cxc file together with other actions? Many thanks! Hong [cid:12317B70-9FE5-4C25-933C-E56EF2888E9D]

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ChimeraX on Mac
by Lisa Käshammer 30 Jul '22

30 Jul '22

Dear developers, I have problems to get chimeraX to work on my computer. It had a previous version installed (1.1) which did not work anymore. So I removed that version and installed the newest version, however, it does not open. There is no error message so I am a bit lost at what I can do to resolve this issue. The macOS is 10.15.7. Thank you very much in advance. Best, Lisa

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command inquary
by Kwangjun Lee 30 Jul '22

30 Jul '22

Hello, Do you have any command that displays a selected region only? For example, I have a protein structure AA1 to AA300. I only want to display AA100 to AA200. Thanks!

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Re-scaling maps
by Nebojsa Bogdanovic 29 Jul '22

29 Jul '22

Hello, I have two maps. One from cryosparc @ 1.06 A/pix and another EM-gan sharpened map @ 1.0 A/pix. They are different in size upon visual inspection in chimeraX so I tried relion_image_handler --i cryosparc.mrc --angpix 1.0 --rescale_angpix 1.06 --o cryosparc-rescaled.mrc however, the resulting map is still smaller than the original input. I also tried to rescale in this way to several different angpix values but maps are still not the same. Is there any command in chimeraX or chimera to play with pix sizes to find the right one? Thank You and regards, Nebojša Bogdanović, Ph.D Department of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University

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Application to enter the chimeraX user's group
by Xiaofeng CHU 28 Jul '22

28 Jul '22

Dear chimeraX team Sorry for the interruption. My name's Xiaofeng Chu, the phd candidate in Misha Kudryashev's group working on cryoET and structural biology. Could you please help me to enter the group of chimeraX users? So I can raise some questions about how to use it. Thank you very much in advance! And have a nice day. Best regards Xiaofeng -- Xiaofeng Chu (he/him) Ph.D. candidate in M. Kudryashev's research group, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association 13125 Berlin, Germany

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Re: [chimerax-users] Assembling 2 proteins
by Elaine Meng 27 Jul '22

27 Jul '22

Hi Tata Santosh Rama Bhadra Rao, I already gave my suggestions in the previous message, so there is not really anything else I can do to teach you. Since you didn't give the details of all the steps that you tried and which step(s) gave results you didn't like, I can't tell you how to do it differently. My only idea is to go back to what I already suggested: you could use Matchmaker if you already had a pentamer, which you show in the bottom figures. So, following the instructions in my first reply, maybe you can take the chains shown in the top figures and match them onto the chains in the bottom figures to make the pentamer. However, that will only work if the proteins are very similar. If you did it already and it gave the bad result, maybe these proteins are not similar enough to use that approach. Best, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. UCSF Chimera(X) team Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco > On May 30, 2022, at 9:22 PM, SANTOSH RAMA BHADRA RAO TATA <19807877(a)students.latrobe.edu.au> wrote: > > Hi Elaine, > > I tried doing and it came out like this. Final 2 figures are homomeric pentamers. First 2 are heteromers with 3A subunits (A, B, D chains) and 2D (C, E chains) subunits. Could you please help me or teach me assembling them properly. > > Thanking you, > > With best wishes, > Tata Santosh Rama Bhadra Rao, > PhD Scholar, > C/O Prof Helen Irving, > La Trobe university, > Bendigo, Vic-3550, > Australia. > Email: 19807877(a)students.latrobe.edu.au; > S.Tata(a)latrobe.edu.au > Phone: 0499263974 > From: Elaine Meng <meng(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Sent: Wednesday, 25 May 2022 2:08 AM > To: SANTOSH RAMA BHADRA RAO TATA <19807877(a)students.latrobe.edu.au> > Cc: chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu <chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> > Subject: Re: [chimerax-users] Assembling 2 proteins > > Hello Tata Santosh Rama Bhadra Rao, > It all depends on what information you have already. If you don't know how the pentamer is supposed to look (how the proteins fit together), then there may not be enough information: ChimeraX is not going to predict the pentamer structure for you. > > You said "5 different proteins" which I interpret to mean they are not 5 copies of the same thing, that it is a heteropentamer and not a homopentamer. If they were 5 copies of the same thing (homopentamer), then you might be able to use the "sym" command to build it from one copy, if the input file contains symmetry matrices in the header, or you know the symmetry and can specify it separately: > <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/sym.html> > > Otherwise: > You would only use Matchmaker if you also have an already-known structure of a similar pentamer. Then you would open the structure of that pentamer, open the structures of your five proteins (if the same one is multiple copies in the pentamer, you would open it multiple times), and then match each one of them to the similar subunit of the known pentamer. In other words, you would open 6 different PDB files and then use Matchmaker 5 times, once to match each of your proteins to the corresponding subunit of the pentamer. > > Just start Matchmaker (menu: Tools... Structure Comparison... Matchmaker) and in that dialog's Chain Pairing, choose "Specific chain(s) in reference structure with specific chain(s) in match structure". Choose one of your protein chains as the match structure and choose the corresponding chain in the known pentamer as the reference. Apply. Repeat with your second protein chain, etc. > > Here is the Matchmaker help with detailed explanations of all the options: > <https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/tools/matchmaker.html#top> > > I hope this helps, > Elaine > ----- > Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. > UCSF Chimera(X) team > Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry > University of California, San Francisco > > > > > > On May 23, 2022, at 9:49 PM, SANTOSH RAMA BHADRA RAO TATA via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users(a)cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > I would like to create a pentamer, how can I assemble 5 different proteins subunits into a pentamer. I was trying to use matchmaker but I couldn't. can you please help me with some video how to get in use it or if there is any other way to use the software and create pentamer please let me know. > > > > Thanking you, > > > > With best wishes, > > Tata Santosh Rama Bhadra Rao, > > PhD Scholar, > > C/O Prof Helen Irving, > > La Trobe university, > > Bendigo, Vic-3550, > > Australia. > > Email: 19807877(a)students.latrobe.edu.au; > > S.Tata(a)latrobe.edu.au > > Phone: 0499263974

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FitMap/FitList scripting
by Christian Tüting 27 Jul '22

27 Jul '22

Dear ChimeraX DevTeam, I am currently working on a project which requires fitting a single model multiple times in a map. This is easy doable with the global search parameter, and if n is big enough, all correct locations are found. My collegue Ioannis wrote you a couple of weeks ago to implement a copy function to the fitlist, but this includes only the statistics, but not the translation information of each model. This is only possible by clicking the button "Place Copy", which creates a copy of the model and applies the translation to this model. In the log, there is only the best model with the translation matrix, but if my map does have multiple correct locations, I'm missing this information. I extended the fitmap function in fitcmd.py, so it writes this to a file to the current location called fitmap.txt. This file contains all the statistics and the rotation/translation information. This might be handy for some users. Here is the code: f = open("fitmap.txt", "w") if len(flist) == 0: f.write("No fit found") else: for i, f0 in enumerate(flist): msg = f0.fit_message() f.write(f"Fit #{i+1}\n" + msg + "\n") f.close() Maybe you can include an option "to_text" (which is false by default), to actually add this functionality. Best Christian

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renumber command is unknown
by Kwangjun Lee 27 Jul '22

27 Jul '22

Hello, I am a new user of ChimeraX. I have tried to renumber AA but renumber is an unknown command. Is there any way that I renumber? For example, my current model starts C 1, I want to renumber it to C 20. Thanks for developing a great software.

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