Removing protein chains built into RNA density with remove_poor_fragments

Author(s)

Purpose

This routine takes a model that contains RNA and protein and tries to identify fragments of protein that were accidentally built into RNA density.

Usage

When carrying out model-building for complexes between protein and RNA it sometimes happens that protein can be built accidentally into regions that are really RNA. The phenix.remove_poor_fragments tool is used to try and identify such incorrectly-built regions.

How remove_poor_fragments works:

The key idea in this approach is that these incorrectly-built regions tend to be isolated (not in the middle of a protein domain) and to have lower map-model correlation than the correct parts of the protein chains. The phenix.remove_poor_fragments tool ranks all protein segments on these criteria and removes the worst ones. The threshold that is chosen based on the number of residues of RNA expected in the molecule that were not built, the fraction of protein that was built, and the quality of the model, using the formula:

residues_to_remove = A * protein_built * rna_not_built/(cc*protein_present)

where cc is the map-model correlation for the protein part of the model, protein_present is the number of protein residues in the sequence file, protein_built are residues of protein built, and rna_not_built are residues of RNA in the sequence file minus the number built.

The logic of this formula is that there is a certain volume, proportional to rna_not_built, that is really RNA that might be accidentally built as protein. Furthermore the logic is that the number of residues of protein that might be built in that volume is higher if more residues of protein have been built and higher if the model-map correlation for the protein model is low. These relationships were seen in an analysis of ribosome structures. A scale factor A of 0.53 relating the optimal number of residues to remove to the other factors was found empirically.

Output files from remove_poor_fragments

trimmed_pdb.pdb: A PDB file with your trimmed model.

Examples

Standard run of remove_poor_fragments:

Running remove_poor_fragments is easy. From the command-line you can type:

phenix.remove_poor_fragments model_with_protein_and_rna.pdb \
   seq.dat \
   map.ccp4

Possible Problems

Specific limitations and problems:

Literature

Additional information

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