from htmd.ui import *
config(viewer='webgl')

Building Barnase - Barstar for protein-protein interactions#

image1

Download the two proteins and view them#

You can look at their PDB information here and find out their PDB IDs. Then download them using those IDs.

You will need to create Molecule objects. Check the documentation on the Molecule class.

barnase = Molecule('2f4y')
barstar = Molecule('2hxx')

Filter the structures to keep only one chain of each#

Pick only one chain of each structure. This will keep the crystal waters corresponding to the chosen chain.

barnase.filter('chain A')
barstar.filter('chain A')

Visualize the filtered structures#

from ipywidgets.widgets import Box; w = []
w.append(barnase.view())
w.append(barstar.view())
Box(children=(w[0],w[1]))

Mutate modified residues#

Barstar has a modified residue for which we lack the parametrization (check under “Small Molecules” on PDB). Mutate the modified Tryptophan in Barstar (resname 4IN) to a normal Tryptophan (TRP):

barstar.mutateResidue('resname 4IN', 'TRP')

Assignments and renaming#

Assign a different chain (A, B) and segment to each protein (BRN, STR):

barnase.set('chain', 'A', 'protein')
barstar.set('chain', 'B', 'protein')
barnase.set('segid', 'BRN')
barstar.set('segid', 'STR')

Since the crystal waters were kept, assign them to segid W1 and W2 (assigning waters of both molecules to the same segid can cause problems as they will have same resids)

barnase.set('segid', 'W1', 'water')
barstar.set('segid', 'W2', 'water')

Combine the proteins and center them#

Create a new molecule which will contain both other molecules.

mol = Molecule()
mol.append(barnase)
mol.append(barstar)

Now center the new combined molecule on the origin.

mol.center()

Solvate the combined system#

Find the maximum distance of the atoms from the center:

from moleculekit.util import maxDistance
D = maxDistance(mol); print(D)

Add 5 Å to this distance, to add some extra space in the box, and then solvate (no need to add a salt concentration):

D += 5
smol = solvate(mol, minmax=[[-D, -D, -D],[D, D, D]])

Build the solvated system in CHARMM#

molbuilt = charmm.build(smol, outdir='./build/')

Visualize the built system#

Can take a while to load…

molbuilt.view(sel='protein',style='NewCartoon',
              color='Secondary Structure', hold=True)
molbuilt.view(sel='water',style='lines')