title: Rigorous description of DNA structures. II. On the computation of best axes, planes, and helices from atomic coordinates.
abstract: We show that diagonalization of the moments of inertia tensor of an arbitrary molecular structure automatically yields the best (least squares) points, line, and plane through the structure. Furthermore, we show how to compute best helices using atomic coordinates. These results supplement the general methodology for description of DNA structures proposed recently (D.M. Soumpasis and C.-S. Tung, J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. 6, 397-420, 1988).
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen, FRG.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Soumpasis
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Tung
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Garcia
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D008433:Mathematics; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004247:DNA