Cryo-electron microscopy modeling by the molecular dynamics flexible fitting method.
The increasing power and popularity of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) in structural biology brought about the development of so-called hybrid methods, which permit the interpretation of cryo-EM density maps beyond their nominal resolution in terms of atomic models. The Cryo-EM Modeling Challenge 2010 is the first community effort to bring together developers of hybrid methods as well as cryo-EM experimentalists. Participating in the challenge, the molecular dynamics flexible fitting (MDFF) method was applied to a number of cryo-EM density maps. The results are described here with special emphasis on the use of symmetry-based restraints to improve the quality of atomic models derived from density maps of symmetric complexes; on a comparison of the stereochemical quality of atomic models resulting from different hybrid methods; and on application of MDFF to electron crystallography data.
Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Kwok-Yan
KY
Chan
Leonardo G
LG
Trabuco
Eduard
E
Schreiner
Klaus
K
Schulten
D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D003461:Crystallography; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D013237:Stereoisomerism