[cctbxbb] crystal packing/unit cell question

Nat Echols nathaniel.echols at gmail.com
Thu Nov 3 16:02:43 PDT 2011


Neither of these will work, for the reasons that were already stated -
with sites_mod_positive=False, the symmetry mates do not necessarily
end up with most atoms in the minimal unit cell with origin at 0,0,0,
and with sites_mod_positive=True, all atoms are in the unit cell, but
the protein chains are chopped up.  Neither of these shows how the
crystal is packed.  Doing so requires sampling translations of the
fractional coordinates.

On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 2:29 PM, Pavel Afonine <pafonine at lbl.gov> wrote:
>
> Hi Jessica,
>
> try with sites_mod_positive=False (this is what I mentioned this morning in my previous email). I think (but not sure) one of them should do "what you want" . I just tried. Run the attached script with the PDB file of your choice, and compare the results.
>
> Pavel
>
>
> On 11/3/11 12:42 PM, Jessica Grant wrote:
>
> Thanks everyone, for the input.  I have written a little script using your help.  Attached is an image -- the green is the output of my script, the blue is the original pdb file.
> code looks like this:
> from iotbx.file_reader import any_file
> import sys
> from mmtbx import utils
>
> def run (args) :
> pdb_file = args[0]
>         pdb_inp = any_file(pdb_file, force_type="pdb").file_object
>
>         xray = pdb_inp.xray_structure_simple()
>   uc = xray.expand_to_p1(sites_mod_positive=True)
>
> outfile = open("unit_cell.pdb", "w")
>
>
>         utils.write_pdb_file(xray_structure = uc, pdb_hierarchy = pdb_inp.construct_hierarchy(), out = outfile)
> if __name__ == "__main__" :
>         run(sys.argv[1:])
>
> It doesn't look like it is doing quite what I want.  Oh...I just had the thought that perhaps I should apply the symmetry operators before using 'expand_to_P1'
>
> Maybe?
> Jessica
>
>
>
>
> 1) isn't this a method of the X-ray structure object, not one of the PDB objects?
>
> expand_to_p1 is a method from xray/structure.py. I just used it yesterday.
>
> 2) won't it split up molecules to keep the sites all inside the unit cell?
>
> I'm getting annoyed that it's not easier to do this kind of lattice generation for proteins, so I may just try coding it myself later today or tomorrow.  (I'd like to figure out something analogous to the 'symexp' function in PyMOL, but I think that's a little more work.)
>
> I can't imagine what can be easier than this? If you don't want to "split" copies to be all atoms from 1 to -1, then I guess sites_mod_positive=True (or False, I don't remember) should probably simply multiply copies.
> Anyway, it's faster to try than typing this email: try both, save xray_structure as PDB file and open it in PyMol.
>
> What is 'symexp' function in PyMOL ?
>
> Pavel
>
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