Visualization of macromolecular structures.

Seán I O'Donoghue (1) , David S Goodsell (2) , Achilleas S Frangakis (3) , Fabrice Jossinet (4) , Roman A Laskowski (5) , Michael Nilges (6) , Helen R Saibil (7) , Andrea Schafferhans (1) , Rebecca C Wade (8) , Eric Westhof (4) , Arthur J Olson (2)

1 EMBL - European Molecular Biology Laboratory [Heidelberg]
2 The Scripps Research Institute [La Jolla, San Diego]
3 Goethe University Frankfurt
4 ARN - Architecture et Réactivité de l'ARN
5 EMBL-EBI - European Bioinformatics Institute [Hinxton]
6 Bioinformatique Structurale
7 Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Birkbeck College
8 Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Sciences (HITS), Heidelberg

Structural biology is rapidly accumulating a wealth of detailed information about protein function, binding sites, RNA, large assemblies and molecular motions. These data are increasingly of interest to a broader community of life scientists, not just structural experts. Visualization is a primary means for accessing and using these data, yet visualization is also a stumbling block that prevents many life scientists from benefiting from three-dimensional structural data. In this review, we focus on key biological questions where visualizing three-dimensional structures can provide insight and describe available methods and tools.

Domaines: Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire; Biologie cellulaire; Bio-Informatique, Biologie Systémique [q-bio.QM]; Bio-informatique [q-bio.QM]

Seán I O'Donoghue, David S Goodsell, Achilleas S Frangakis, Fabrice Jossinet, Roman A Laskowski, et al.. Visualization of macromolecular structures.. Nature Methods, 2010, 7 (3 Suppl), pp.S42-55. ⟨10.1038/nmeth.1427⟩. ⟨hal-00476572⟩