Multichain Comparative Modeling

Modeller Comparative is an interface to Modeller for comparative (“homology”) modeling of proteins and protein complexes.

The example shows modeling the human (shades of blue) from the mouse (brown and tan) complex of programmed death-1 (PD-1) with its ligand PD-L2, PDB 3bp5.

Comparative modeling requires a template structure and a target-template sequence alignment for each unique chain. The sequences of human PD-1 and PD-L2 targets were fetched from UniProt and associated with the corresponding chains in the template structure, see model-pdl-setup.cxc. (Pairwise or multiple sequence alignments could have been used, but in this case, the template structure was simply associated with the target sequence.) Sequence-structure association shows mismatches in the Sequence Viewer: pink boxes for sequence differences between mouse and human, and gray outlines around the parts missing from the structure.

Three models were made with with default settings (other than the number of models), and the best-scoring model is shown. Two positions where sequence differences change the interfacial H-bonds are displayed.

B-factor Coloring

Atomic B-factor values are read from PDB and mmCIF input files and assigned as attributes that can be shown with coloring and used in atom specification. This example shows B-factor variation within a structure of the HIV-1 protease bound to an inhibitor (PDB 4hvp). For complete image setup, including positioning, color key, and label, see the command file bfactor.cxc.

Additional color key examples can be found in tutorials: Coloring by Electrostatic Potential, Coloring by Sequence Conservation

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