Hi Youssef, Some (leading) questions 1. How do you images look? 2. For your structure, what is the quality of the density for each monomer, are both the same or is one monomer radically different from another? 3. How certain are you of your space group? Some suggestions in order of decreasing sanity Strategy A: 1. Expand your data set to P1 phenix.reflection_file_converter mydata.sca --expand_to_p1 --sca=mynew_p1_data.sca (or reprocess in p1) 2. Solve this structure with the model you have (using MR or expanding the structure to P1) 3. Refine this structure with phenix.refine (it chooses the free set with the highest symmetry in mind) 4. Run xtriage on both the p1 data and model at the same time (phenix.xtriage data.sca reference.structure.file=model.pdb). The RvsR statistics can indicate the presence of higher, pseudo symmetry, twinning or a combination of these problems. Strategy B: Try switching target functions (use LS instead of ML). The presence of pseudo translation function is known to confuse the likelihood model in molecular replacement, and I wouldn't be surprised if it could have a similar effect in refinement. Alternatively, cheat the system by refining alternatively against weak and strong data until you have pushed the system down the deep Strategy C: Shift the model you have by (0,0.25,0) and see how that refines Strategy D: "Grow better crystals" HTH Peter 2009/6/22 youssef ben ammar :

Hi all, I recently solved the structure of a protein containing 395aa using phenix autosol. After autoBuild I got about 65% of the sequence docked with 2 monomers in the ASU. After several refinement cycles the map has been improved and I build manually the remaining amino acids. But the problem is that R and Rfree didn't decrease below 0.28 and 0.33 respectively. I tried with NCS restraints, TLS but without success. When I revised phenix autosol logs carefully, I found that in xtriage the analyses of the Patterson function reveals a significant off-origin peak that is 41.59 % of the origin peak, indicating pseudo translational symmetry and no twin laws were found. The space group is P212121 (36.898, 59.45, 393.908, 90, 90, 90). The basic statistics suggested 1 copy in the ASU (but the solution gave 2 copies per ASU !!!). The same analysis done by ccp4i gave the same solvent content and math. coef. in p21212 but with 2 copies per ASU. In xtriage I found this suggestion: If the observed pseudo translationals are crystallographic the following spacegroups and unit cells are possible: space group  P 21 21 2 (b-1/4,2*c,a)          operator    x, y+1/2, z unit cell of reference setting  (393.91, 36.90, 29.73,  90.00, 90.00, 90.00)

I am really stucked with the refinement and don't know how to deal with this pseudo translation.

Any help or suggestions are welcome.

Thank you.

Youssef

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