- Ribbon diagram
as arrows, and lines or thin tubes for random coils. The direction of the polypeptide chain may be indicated by a colour ramp along the length of the ribbon. [ [http://www.danforthcenter.org/smith/molview/over/overview.html Thomas J. Smith ] ]
Ribbon diagrams are simple, yet powerful, in expressing the visual basics of a molecular structure (twist, fold and unfold). This method has successfully portrayed the overall organization of the protein structure, reflecting its 3-dimensional information, and allowing for better understanding of a complex object by structural biologists.
History
Originally conceived by
Jane S. Richardson , her hand-drawn sketches of the ribbon diagrams were the first schematic diagrams to be produced. [Richardson, Jane S. Schematic Drawings of Protein Structures. Methods in Enzymology 115:359-380, 1985.] In 1982,Arthur M. Lesk and coworkers enabled automatic generation of ribbon diagrams through a computational implementation that uses Protein Data Bank files as input. [Arthur M. Lesk, Karl D. Hardman. Computer-Generated Schematic Diagrams of Protein Structures. Science 216:539-540, 1982.] This conceptually simple algorithm fitcubic polynomial B-spline curves to the peptide planes. Most modern graphics systems provide B-splines as a basic drawing primitive. B-Splines are well suited to fitting between data points but not necessarily interpolating through each of those points. To create a line that intersects all data points,Hermite spline s work better.Current computer programs
A popular program used for drawing ribbon diagrams today is
Molscript . Molscript utilizes hermite splines to create coordinates for coils, turns, strands and helices. The curve passes through all its control points (Cα atoms ) guided by direction vectors. The program was built on the basis of traditional molecular graphics byJane S. Richardson ,Arthur M. Lesk & Karl Hardman, and John Priestle. [ [http://www.avatar.se/molscript/doc/about.html MolScript v2.1: About the program ] ]Other programs such as
PyMOL also produce ribbon diagrams.Features of ribbon diagrams
References
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