[phenixbb] high R-value with resolve_cryo_em

Pavel Afonine pafonine at lbl.gov
Fri Jun 10 13:06:26 PDT 2022


Hi Tom and Daniel,

I'm confused about what R factor we are talking about here? You say 
"This R value describes the mismatch between measured and map-based 
structure factor amplitudes. ", then questions I'd ask are:

- what program was used to calculate it?

- Was all scaling between model and data generated Fs done properly? Not 
treating solvent region (or whatever that is in cryo-em) alone can 
result in large R factors.

- Was model refined properly (coordinates and B factors). Unrefined B 
factors even for perfectly fitting model (coordinates wise) can result 
in high R factors.

- Why we calculate and try to interpret R factors at all given it is 
cryo-EM case (no Fobs)?

Pavel

On 6/9/22 05:56, Tom Terwilliger wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Oops...way too much jargon in my reply.  "Cut the resolution" means 
> "Use a lower resolution cutoff".  Of course that could mean a bigger 
> or smaller number.  It means "Use a bigger number for the value of 
> resolution"  The idea here is to select a resolution range in which 
> most of the data are reasonably accurate, where the estimated 
> correlation of Fourier terms with the true ones is something like 0.5 
> (the standard half-map correlation cutoff of 0.143), but it is not 
> obvious exactly what quality cutoff and therefore what resolution 
> cutoff should be used, so a few tries never hurt.
>
> You might try boxing your map yourself, using varying values for the 
> buffer around the model (from 5 to 10 A). Then tell resolve_cryo_em 
> not to box the incoming map. This way you can actually vary the 
> solvent content.
>
> Using the model in density modification could help but keep in mind 
> that you should always also do it without the model so that you have 
> some map that you know does not have any model bias. (The model-based 
> density modification does not seem to have model bias in my experience 
> but it always could).
>
> All the best,
> Tom T
>
> On Wed, Jun 8, 2022 at 11:04 PM Daniel Larsson 
> <daniel.larsson at icm.uu.se> wrote:
>
>     Hi Tom,
>
>     Thank you so much for the feedback.
>
>     By “cutting the resolution” does that mean that I should put a
>     smaller or higher number for the density modification resolution?
>     I guess I should try both lower and higher...
>
>     The solvent content using default settings is very high, more than
>     97%. My guess is that this is because there is a lot of nucleic
>     acid and perhaps the density is being more localized (e.g. to the
>     phosphate groups) than what is normal for proteins. I tried to
>     force a lower solvent content, such as 90%, but that did not
>     change the R-value. I will try with model-based density
>     modification and see if that helps.
>
>     Regards,
>     Daniel
>
>
>>     On 8 Jun 2022, at 21:39, Tom Terwilliger
>>     <tterwilliger at newmexicoconsortium.org> wrote:
>>
>>     Hi Daniel,
>>
>>     We don't have a standard way to interpret the R value for density
>>     modification...hence the rough guide of "0.25 is good and 0.5 is
>>     poor" but no documentation. This applies to both X-ray and cryoEM
>>     density modification.
>>
>>     This R value describes the mismatch between measured and
>>     map-based structure factor amplitudes.  Usually these match
>>     pretty well in cases where the map is improved a lot and not when
>>     the map does not improve, but there is no obvious and simple
>>     relationship.
>>
>>     My recommendation would be to use the estimate of map resolution
>>     and visual quality as your guide as to whether it has improved
>>     your map, and the R value in density modification as a possible
>>     indication that some change of parameters might help if things
>>     are not going well (not that it tells you what to change, but a
>>     good one is always resolution and another is solvent content.)
>>
>>     In your case I might try cutting the resolution or randomly
>>     changing solvent content and testing...but as the map looks ok I
>>     would not try too hard.
>>
>>     I hope that helps!
>>     All the best,
>>     Tom T
>>
>>     On Wed, Jun 8, 2022 at 14:25 Daniel Larsson
>>     <daniel.larsson at icm.uu.se> wrote:
>>
>>         Hi all,
>>
>>         I tried to do density modification using the resolve_cryo_em
>>         tool. The resolution improves quite a lot from around 2.60 to
>>         around 2.35 and the density looks significantly better than
>>         the autorefined original map. However, the R-values is close
>>         to 0.5, which seems very high. How should the R-value
>>         generated by this tool be interpreted? It is very poorly
>>         documented and not mentioned in the paper or on the manual
>>         page, but Tom Terwilliger mentioned in a workshop that “low
>>         number is good” and “point two-four is a very good number,
>>         point five is not a good number”, which makes me worried.
>>
>>         Regards,
>>         Daniel
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>         När du har kontakt med oss på Uppsala universitet med e-post
>>         så innebär det att vi behandlar dina personuppgifter. För att
>>         läsa mer om hur vi gör det kan du läsa här:
>>         http://www.uu.se/om-uu/dataskydd-personuppgifter/
>>
>>         E-mailing Uppsala University means that we will process your
>>         personal data. For more information on how this is performed,
>>         please read here:
>>         http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/data-protection-policy
>>
>>         _______________________________________________
>>         phenixbb mailing list
>>         phenixbb at phenix-online.org
>>         http://phenix-online.org/mailman/listinfo/phenixbb
>>         Unsubscribe: phenixbb-leave at phenix-online.org
>>
>>     -- 
>>     Thomas C Terwilliger
>>     Laboratory Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory
>>     Senior Scientist, New Mexico Consortium
>>     100 Entrada Dr, Los Alamos, NM 87544
>>     Email: tterwilliger at newmexicoconsortium.org
>>     Tel: 505-431-0010
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Thomas C Terwilliger
> Laboratory Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory
> Senior Scientist, New Mexico Consortium
> 100 Entrada Dr, Los Alamos, NM 87544
> Email: tterwilliger at newmexicoconsortium.org
> Tel: 505-431-0010
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> phenixbb mailing list
> phenixbb at phenix-online.org
> http://phenix-online.org/mailman/listinfo/phenixbb
> Unsubscribe:phenixbb-leave at phenix-online.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phenix-online.org/pipermail/phenixbb/attachments/20220610/089e77b5/attachment-0001.htm>


More information about the phenixbb mailing list