Copyright (c) 1992,1993,1994 by Roger Sayle
rasmol@ggr.co.ukThe information supplied in this document is believed to be true but no liability is assumed for its use or for the infringements of the rights of the others resulting from its use.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of the supplier. This package is sold/distributed subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the supplier's prior consent, in any form of packaging or cover other than that in which it was produced. No part of this manual or accompanying software may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system on optical or magnetic disk, tape or any other medium, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise for any purpose other than the purchaser's personal use.
This product is not to be used in the planning, construction, maintenance, operation or use of any nuclear facility nor the flight, navigation or communication of aircraft or ground support equipment. The author shall not be liable, in whole or in part, for any claims or damages arising from such use, including death, bancruptcy or outbreak of war.
The commands/keywords currently recognised by RasMol are given below.
Backbone Background Centre Colour HBonds Help Load Quit Renumber Reset Restrict Ribbons Rotate Save Script Select Set Show Slab Spacefill Structure SSBonds Translate Wireframe Write Zap Zoom
Syntax: backbone {<boolean>}
backbone <value>
The RasMol backbone command permits the representation of a polypeptide backbone as a series of bonds connecting the adjacent alpha carbons of each amino acid in a chain. The display of these backbone `bonds' is turned on and off by the command paramater the same as the wireframe command. The command backbone off turns off the selected `bonds', and backbone on or with a number turns them on. The number can be used to determine the cylinder radius of the representation in 0.004 angstrom units. Backbone objects may be coloured using the RasMol colour backbone command. A parameter value of 500 (2 angstroms) or above results in an "Integer argument too large" error.
Syntax: background <colour>
The RasMol background command is used to set the colour of the "canvas" background. The colour may be given as either a colour name or a comma separated triple of Red, Green and Blue (RGB) components enclosed in square brackets. Typing the command help colours will give a list of the predefined colour names recognised by RasMol. When running under X Windows, RasMol also recognises colours in the X server's colour name database.
Syntax: center {<expression>}
centre {<expression>}
The RasMol centre command defines the point about which the rotate command and the scroll bars rotate the current molecule. Without a parameter the centre command resets the centre of rotation to be the centre of gravity of the molecule. If an atom expression is specified, RasMol rotates the molecule about the centre of gravity of the set of atoms specified by the expression. Hence, if a single atom is specified by the expression, that atom will remain `stationary' during rotations.
Type help expression for more information on RasMol atom expressions.
Syntax: colour {<object>} <colour>
color {<object>} <colour>
Colour the atoms (or other objects) of the selected zone. The colour may be given as either a colour name or a comma separated triple of Red, Green and Blue (RGB) components enclosed in square brackets. Typing the command help colours will give a list of all the predefined colour names recognised by RasMol.
Allowed objects are
atoms,
bonds,
backbone,
hbonds,
ribbons
and
ssbonds.
If no object is specified, the default keyword
atom
is assumed.
Some colour schemes are defined for certain object types. The colour scheme
none
can be applied all objects accept atoms, stating that the selected
objects have no colour of their own, but use the colour of their associated
atoms (i.e. the atoms they connect).
Atom
objects can also be coloured by
amino,
cpk,
chain,
group,
shapely,
structure,
temperature
and
user
and hydrogen bond objects can also be coloured by
type.
For more information type
help colour
Syntax: hbonds {<boolean>}
hbonds <value>
The RasMol hbond command is used to represent the hydrogen bonding of the protein molecule's backbone. This information is useful in assessing the protein's secondary structure. Hydrogen bonds are represented as either dotted lines or cylinders between the donor and acceptor residues. The first time the hbond command is used, the program searches the structure of the molecule to find hydrogen bonded residues and reports the number of bonds to the user. The command hbonds on displays the selected `bonds' as dotted lines, and the hbonds off turns off their display. The colour of hbond objects may be changed by the colour hbond command. Initially, each hydrogen bond has the colours of its connected atoms.
By default the dotted lines are drawn between the accepting oxygen and the donating nitrogen. By using the set hbonds command the alpha carbon positions of the appropriate residues may be used instead. This is especially useful when examining proteins in backbone representation.
Syntax: help {<topic> {<subtopic>}}
? {<topic> {<subtopic>}}
The RasMol help command provides on-line help on the given topic.
Syntax: load {pdb} <filename>
load alchemy <filename>
Load either a Brookhaven Protein Databank (PDB) file or Alchemy(tm) format file into RasMol2. Only a single PDB file may be loaded at a time. This command selects all the atoms in the molecule, and sets the default representation to be a cpk coloured wireframe model.
Syntax: quit
exit
Exit from the RasMol program.
Syntax: renumber {{-} <value>}
The RasMol renumber command sequentially numbers the residues in a macromolecular chain. The optional parameter specifies the value of the first residue in the sequence. By default, this value is one. For proteins, each amino acid is numbered consecutively from the N terminus to the C terminus. For nucleic acids, each base is numbered from the 5' terminus to 3' terminus. All chains in the current database are renumbered and gaps in the original sequence are ignored. The starting value for numbering may be negative.
Syntax: reset
The RasMol reset command restores the original viewing transformation and centre of rotation. The scale is set to it default value, zoom 100, the centre of rotation is set to the geometric centre of the currently loaded molecule, centre all, this centre is translated to the middle of the screen and the viewpoint set to the default orientation.
This command should not be mistaken for the RasMol zap command which deletes the currently stored molecule, returning the program to its initial state.
Syntax: restrict {<expression>}
The RasMol restrict command both defines the currently active zone of the molecule and disables the representation of (most of) those parts of the molecule no longer selected. All subsequent RasMol commands that modify a molecule's colour or representation effect only the currently selected zone. The parameter of a restrict command is a RasMol atom expression that is evaluated for every atom of the current molecule. This command is very similar to the RasMol select command, except restrict disables the wireframe, spacefill and backbone representations in the non-active zone.
Type "help expression" for more information on RasMol atom expressions.
Syntax: ribbons {<boolean>}
ribbons <value>
The RasMol ribbons command displays the currently loaded protein as a smooth "ribbon" of depth-cued curves passing along the backbone of the protein. The ribbon is composed of a number of strands that run parallel to one another along the peptide plane of each residue. The ribbon is drawn between each amino acid whose alpha carbon is currently selected. The colour of the ribbon is changed by the RasMol colour ribbon command. If the current ribbon colour is none (the default), the colour is taken from the alpha carbon at each position along its length.
The width of the ribbon at each position is determined by the optional parameter in the usual RasMol units. By default this value is 380, which produces a ribbon 1.52 Angstroms wide. The number of strands in the ribbon may be altered using the RasMol set strands command.
Syntax: rotate <axis> {-} <value>
Rotate the molecule about the specified axis. Permited values for the axis parameter are "x", "y" and "z". The integer parameter states the angle in degrees for the structure to be rotated. For the X and Y axes, positive values move the closest point up and right, and negative values move it down and left respectively. For the Z axis, a positive rotation acts clockwise and a negative angle anti-clockwise.
Syntax: save {pdb} <filename>
save alchemy <filename>
Save the currently selected set of atoms in either a Brookhaven Protein Database (PDB) or Alchemy(tm) format file. This command should not be confused with the RasMol write command which generates either image or script files.
Syntax: script <filename>
The RasMol script command reads a set of commands sequentially from a text file and executes them. This allows sequences of commonly used commands to be stored and performed by a single command. A RasMol script file may contain a further script command up to a maximum "depth" of 10, allowing compilicated sequences of actions to be executed.
Syntax: select {<expression>}
Define the currently active zone of the molecule. All subsequent RasMol commands that manipulate a molecule or modify its colour or representation, only effects the currently selected zone. The parameter of a select command is a RasMol expression that is evaluated for every atom of the current molecule. The currently selected (active) zone of the molecule are those atoms that cause the expression to evaluate true. To select the whole molecule use the RasMol command select all.
Type "help expression" for more information on RasMol atom expressions.
Syntax: set <parameter> {<option>}
The RasMol
set
command allows the user to alter various internal program parameters
such as those controlling rendering options. Each parameter has its
own set or permissible parameter options. Typically, ommiting the
paramter option resets that parameter to its default value. A list of
valid parameter names is given below. For more information on each
internal parameter type
help set
Ambient Background BondMode HBonds Hetero HourGlass Hydrogen Mouse Shadow SlabMode Specular SpecPower SSBonds Strands
Syntax: show information
show sequence
The RasMol show command display details of the status of the currently loaded molecule. The command show information lists the molecule's name, classification, PDB code and the number of atoms, chains, groups it contains. If hydrogen bonding, disulphide bridges or secondary structure have been determined, the number of hbonds, ssbonds, helices, ladders and turns are also displayed respectively. The command show sequence lists the residues that compose each chain of the molecule.
Syntax: slab {<boolean>}
slab <value>
The RasMol slab command enables, disables or positions the z-clipping plane of the molecule. The program only draws those portions of the molecule that are further from the viewer than the slabbing plane. Integer values range from zero at the very back of the molecule to 100 which is completely in front of the molecule. Intermediate values determine the percentage of the molecule to be drawn.
Syntax: spacefill {<boolean>}
spacefill temperature
spacefill user
spacefill <value>
Represent the currently selected zone as a spacefilling union of spheres model. An integer parameter may be used to specify the radius of each atom given in 4nm units. If no parameter is given, each atom is drawn as a sphere of its Van der Waals radius.
The temperature option is used to set the radius of each selected sphere to the value in the temperature field of the molecule file. A zero or negative value causes no change in the selected atom. Temperature values greater than 2.00 are truncated to 2.00 Angstrom radius.
The user option allows the radius of the selected spheres to be determined by matching each atom against optional lines in the input data file. Details of the wildcard pattern matching used by Raster3D's COLOR records is given in the manual.
Syntax: ssbonds {<boolean>}
ssbonds <value>
The RasMol ssbonds command is used to represent the disulphide bridges of the protein molecule as either dotted lines or cylinders between the connected cysteines. The first time that the ssbonds command is used, the program searches the structure of the protein to find half-cysteine pairs (cysteines whose sulphurs are within 3 angstroms of each other) and reports the number of bridges to the user. The command ssbonds on displays the selected `bonds' as dotted lines, and the command ssbonds off disables the display of ssbonds in the currently selected area. Selection of disulphide bridges is identical to normal bonds, and may be adjusted using the RasMol set bondmode command. The colour of disulphide bonds may be changed using the colour ssbonds command. By default, each disulphide bond has the colours of its connected atoms.
By default disulphide bonds are drawn between the sulphur atoms within the cysteine groups. By using the set ssbonds command the position of the cysteine's alpha carbons may be used instead.
Syntax: structure
The RasMol structure command calculates secondary structure assignments for the currently loaded protein. If the original PDB file contained structural assignment records (HELIX and SHEET) these are discarded. Initially, the hydrogen bonds of the current molecule are found, if this hasn't been done already. The secondary structure is the determined using Kabsch and Sander's DSSP algorithm. Once finished the program reports the number of helices and ladders found.
Syntax: translate <axis> {-} <value>
The RasMol translate command moves the position of the centre of the molecule on the screen. The axis parameter specifies along which axis the molecule is to be moved and the integer parameter specifies the absolute position of the molecule centre from the middle of the screen. Permited values for the axis parameter are "x", "y" and "z". Displacement values must be between -100 and 100 which correspond to moving the current molecule just off the screen. A positive "x" displacement moves the molecule to the right, and a positive "y" displacement moves the molecule down the screen. The pair of commands translate x 0 and translate y 0 centres the molecule on the screen.
Syntax: wireframe {<boolean>}
wireframe <value>
Represent each bond within the selected zone of the molecule as either a cylinder or depth-cued vector. If no parameter is given, RasMol draws each bond as a hither-and-yon shaded narrow vector. An integer parameter specifies the radius of a cylinder, given in 4nm units, to be used as a stick bond.
Syntax: write {<format>} <filename>
Write the current image to a file in a standard raster format. Currently supported file formats include "gif" (Compuserve GIF), "ppm" (Portable Pixmap), "ras" (Sun rasterfile), "ps" and "epsf" (Encapsulated PostScript), "monops" (Monochrome Encapsulated PostScript) and "bmp" (Microsoft bitmap). This command should not be confused with the RasMol save command which save the currently selected portion of the molecule.
Syntax: zap
Deletes the contents of the current database and resets parameter variables to their initial default state.
Syntax: zoom {<boolean>}
zoom <value>
Change the magnification of the currently displayed image. Boolean parameters either magnify or reset the scale of current molecule. An integer parameter between 10 and 200 specifies the desired magnification as a percentage of the default scale.
A complete list of internal parameter names is given below.
Ambient Background BondMode HBonds Hetero HourGlass Hydrogen Mouse Shadow SlabMode Specular SpecPower SSBonds Strands
Syntax: set ambient {<value>}
The RasMol ambient parameter is used to control the amount of ambient (or surrounding) light in the scene. The ambient value must be between 0 and 100 that controls the percentage intensity of the darkest shade of an object. For a solid object, this is the intensity of surfaces facing away from the light source or in shadow. For depth-cued objects this is the intensity of objects furthest from the viewer.
This parameter is commonly used to correct for monitors with different "gamma values" (brightness), to change how light or dark a hardcopy image appears when printed or to alter the feeling of depth for wireframe or ribbon representations.
Syntax: set background {<colour>}
The RasMol background parameter is used to set the colour of the "canvas" background. The colour may be given as either a colour name or a comma separated triple of Red, Green, Blue (RGB) components enclosed in square brackets. Typing the command help colours will give a list of the predefined colour names recognised by RasMol. When running under X Windows, RasMol also recognises colours in the X server's colour name database.
Syntax: set bondmode and
set bondmode or
set bondmode
Syntax: set hbonds backbone
set hbonds sidechain
set hbonds
Syntax: set hetero <boolean>
set hetero
Syntax: set hourglass <boolean>
The RasMol hourglass parameter allows the user to enable and disable the use of the `hour glass' cursor used by RasMol to indicate that the program is currently busy drawing the next frame. The command set hourglass on enable the indicator, whilst set hourglass off prevents RasMol from changing the cursor. This is useful when spinning the molecule, running a sequence of commands from a script file or using interprocess communication to execute complex sequences of commands. In these cases a `flashing' cursor may be distracting.
Syntax: set hydrogen <boolean>
set hydrogen
Syntax: set mouse rasmol
set mouse insight
set mouse
Syntax: set shadow <boolean>
set shadow
Syntax: set slabmode <slabmode>
The RasMol slabmode parameter controls the rendering method of objects cut by the slabbing (z-clipping) plane. Valid slab modes are "reject", "half", "hollow", "solid" and "section".
Syntax: set specular <boolean>
The RasMol set specular command enables and disables the display of specular highlights on solid objects drawn by RasMol. Specular highlights appear as white reflections of the light source on the surface of the object. The current RasMol implementation uses an approximation function to generate this highlight.
The specular highlights on the surfaces of solid objects may be altered by using the specular reflection coefficient, which is altered using the RasMol set specpower command.
Syntax: set specpower {<value>}
The specpower parameter determines the shininess of solid objects rendered by RasMol. This value between 0 and 100 adjusts the reflection coeffient used in specular highlight calculations. The specular highlights are enabled and disabled by the RasMol set specular command. Values around 20 or 30 produce plastic looking surfaces. High values represent more shiny surfaces such as metals, while lower values produce more diffuse/dull surfaces.
Syntax: set ssbonds backbone
set ssbonds sidechain
set ssbonds
Syntax: set strands {<value>}
The RasMol strands parameter controls the number of parallel strands that are displayed in the ribbon representations of proteins. The permissible values for this parameter are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9. The default value is 5. The number of strands is constant for all ribbons being displayed. However, the ribbon width (the separation between strands) may be controlled on a residue by residue basis using the RasMol ribbons command.
The logical operators allow complex queries to be constructed out of simpler ones using the standard boolean connectives and, or and not. These may be abbreviated by the symbols "&", "|" and "!" respectively. Parentheses (brackets) may be used to alter the precedence of the operators. For convenience, a comma may also be used for boolean disjunction.
The atom expression is evaluated for each atom, hence protein and backbone selects protein bacbone atoms, not the protein and [nucleic] acid backbone atoms!
The following table gives some useful examples of RasMol atom expressions.
Expression Interpretation
* All atoms
cys Atoms in cysteines
hoh Atoms in heterogenous water molecules
as? Atoms in either asparagine or aspartic acid
*120 Atoms at residue 120 of all chains
*p Atoms in chain P
*.n? Nitrogen atoms
cys.sg Sulphur atoms in cysteine residues
ser70.c? Carbon atoms in serine-70
hem*p.fe Iron atoms in the Heme groups of chain P
RasMol primitive expressions are the fundamental building blocks of atom expressions. There a two basic types of primitive expression. The first type is used to identify a given residue number or range of residue numbers. A single residue is identified by its number (position in the sequence), and a range is specified by lower and upper bounds separated by a hyphen character. For example select 5,6,7,8 is also select 5-8. Note that this selects the given residue numbers in all macromolecule chains.
The second type of primitive expression specifies a sequence of fields that must match for a given atom. The first part specifies a residue (or group of residues) and an optional second part specifies the atoms within those residues. The first part consists of a residue name, optionally followed by a residue number and/or chain identifier.
A residue name typically consists of up to three alphabetic characters, which are case insensitive. Hence the primitive expressions SER and ser are equivalent, identifying all cysteine residues. Residue names that contain non-alphabetic characters, such as sulphate groups, may be delimited using square brackets, i.e. [SO4]
The residue number is the residue's position in the macromolecule sequence. Negative sequence numbers are permited. For example, SER70 Care must be taken when specifying both residue name and number, it the group at the specified position isn't the specified residue no atoms are selected.
The chain identifier is typically a single case-insensitive alphabetic or numeric character. Numeric chain identifiers must be distinguished or separated from residue numbers by a colon character. For example, SER70A or SER70:1
The second part consists of a period character followed by an atom name. An atom name may be up to four alphabetic or numeric characters.
An asterisk may be used as a wild card for a whole field and a question mark as a single character wildcard.
Parts of a molecule may also be distinguished using equality, inequality and ordering operators on their properties. The format of such comparison expression is a property name, followed by a comparison operator and then an integer value.
The atom properties that may be used in RasMol are atomno for the atom serial number, resno for the residue number, radius for the spacefill radius in RasMol units (or zero if not represented as a sphere) and temperature for the PDB anisotropic temperature value.
The equality operator is denoted either "=" or "==". The inequality operator as either "<>", "!=" or "/=". The ordering operators are "<" for less than, "<=" for less than or equal to, ">" for greater than, and ">=" for greater than or equal to.
Examples: resno < 23
temperature >= 900
atomno == 487
A RasMol within expression allows atoms to be selected on their proximity to another set of atoms. A within expression takes two parameters separated by a comma and surrounded by parenthesis. The first argument is an integer value called the "cut-off" distance of the within expression and the second argument is any valid atom expression. The cut-off distance is expressed in RasMol 0.004 Angstrom units. An atom is selected if it is within the cut-off distance of any of the atoms defined by the second argument. This allows complex expressions to be constructed containing nested within expressions.
For example, the command select within(800,backbone) selects any atom within a 3.2 Angstrom radius of any atom in a protein or nucleic acid backbone. Within expressions are particularly usefull for selecting the atoms around an active site.
RasMol atom expressions may contain predefined sets. Thsese sets are single keywords that represent portions of a molecule of interest. Predefined sets are often abbreviations primitive atom expressions, and in some cases of selecting areas of a molecule that could not otherwise be distinguished. A list of the currently predfined sets is given below.
AT Acidic Acyclic Aliphatic Alpha Amino Aromatic Backbone Basic Buried CG Charged Cyclic Cystine Helix Hetero Hydrogen Hydrophobic Large Medium Neutral Nucleic Polar Protein Purine Pyramidine Selected Sheet Sidechain Small Surface Turn Water
This set contains the atoms in the complementary nucleotides adenosine and thymidine (A and T respectively). All nucleotides are classified as either the set at or the set cg This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "a,t" and "nucleic and not cg"
The set of acidic amino acids. These are the residue types Asp, Glu and Tyr. All amino acids are classified as either acidic, basic or neutral. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "asp, glu, tyr" and "amino and not (basic or neutral)"
The set of atoms in amino acids not containing a cycle or ring. All amino acids are classified as either cyclic or acyclic. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "amino and not cyclic"
This set contains the aliphatic amino acids. These are the amino acids Ala, Gly, Ile, Leu and Val. This set is equiavlent to the RasMol atom expression "ala, gly, ile, leu, val"
The set of alpha carbons in the protein molecule. This set is approximately equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "*.CA" This command should not be confused with the predefined set helix which contains the atoms in the amino acids of the protein's alpha helices.
This set contains all the atoms contained in amino acid residues. This is useful for distinguishing the protein from the nucleic acid and heterogenous atoms in the current molecule database.
The set of atoms in amino acids containing aromatic rings. These are the amino acids His, Phe, Trp and Tyr. Because they contain aromatic rings all members of this set are member of the predefined set cyclic. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "his, phe, trp, tyr" and "cyclic and not pro"
This set contains the four atoms of each amino acid that form the polypeptide N-C-C-O backbone of proteins, and the atoms the sugar phosphate backbone of nucleic acids. Use the RasMol predefined sets protein and nucleic to distinguish between the two forms of backbone. Atoms in nucleic acids and proteins are either backbone or sidechain. This set is equivalent to the RasMol expression "(protein or nucleic) and not sidechain
The set of basic amino acids. These are the residue types Asp, Glu and Tyr. All amino acids are classified as either acidic, basic or neutral. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "asp, glu, tyr" and "amino and not (acidic or neutral)"
This set contains the atoms in those amino acids that tend (prefer) to buried inside protein, away from contact with solvent molecules. This set refers to the amino acids preference and not the actual solvent acessibility for the current protein. All amino acids are classified as either surface or buried. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "amino and not surface"
This set contains the atoms in the complementary nucleotides cytidine and guanoine (C and G respectively). All nucleotides are classified as either the set at or the set cg This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "c,g" and "nucleic and not at"
This set contains the charged amino acids. These are the amino acids that are either acidic or basic. Amino acids are classified as being either charged or neutral. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "acidic or basic" and "amino and not neutral"
The set of atoms in amino acids containing a cycle or rings. All amino acids are classified as either cyclic or acyclic. This set consists of the amino acids His, Phe, Pro, Trp and Tyr. The members of the predefined set aromatic are members of this set. The only cyclic but non-aromatic amino acid is proline. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "his, phe, pro, trp, tyr" and "aromatic or pro" and "amino and not acyclic"
This set contains the atoms of cysteine residues that form part of a disulphide bridge, i.e. half cystines. RasMol automatically determines disulphide bridges, if neither the predefined set cystine nor the RasMol ssbonds command have been used since the molecule was loaded. The set of free cysteines may be determined using the RasMol atom expression "cys and not cystine"
This set contains all atoms that form part of a protein alpha helix as determined by either the PDB file author or Kabsch and Sander's DSSP algorithm. By default, RasMol uses the secondary structure determination given in the PDB file if it exists. Otherwise, it uses the DSSP algorithm as used by the RasMol structure command.
This command should not be confused with the predefined set alpha which contains the alpha carbon atoms of a protein.
This set contains all the heterogenous atoms in the molecule. These are the atoms described by HETATM entries in the PDB file. These typically contain water, cofactors and other solvents and ligands. The RasMol predefined set water is often used to partition this set.
This predefined set contains all the hydrogen and deuterium atoms of the current molecule.
This set contains all the hydrophobic amino acids. These are the amino acids Ala, Leu, Val, Ile, Pro, Phe, Met and Trp. All amino acids are classified as either hydrophobic or polar. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "ala, leu, val, ile, pro, phe, met, trp" and "amino and not polar"
All amino acids are classified as either small, medium or large. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "amino and not (small or medium)"
All amino acids are classified as either small, medium or large. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "amino and not (large or small)"
The set of neutral amino acids. All amino acids are classified as either acidic, basic or neutral. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "amino and not (acidic or basic)"
The set of all atoms in nucleic acids.
This set contains the polar amino acids. All amino acids are classified as either hydrophobic or polar. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "amino and not hydrophobic"
The set of all atoms in proteins. This consists of the RasMol predefined set amino and common post-translation modifications.
The set of purine nucleotides. These are the bases adenosine and guanosine (A and G respectively). All nucleotides are either purines or pyramidines. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "a,g" and "nucleic and not purine"
The set of purine nucleotides. These are the bases cytidine and thymidine (C and T respectively). All nucleotides are either purineset purines or pyramidines. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expressions "c,t" and "nucleic and not pyramidine"
This set contains the set of atoms in the currently active zone. The currently active zone is defined by the preceding select or restrict command and not the atom expression containing the selected keyword.
This set contains all atoms that form part of a protein beta sheet as determined by either the PDB file author or Kabsch and Sander's DSSP algorithm. By default, RasMol uses the secondary structure determination given in the PDB file if it exists. Otherwise, it uses the DSSP algorithm as used by the RasMol structure command.
This set contains the functional sidechains of any amino acids and the base of each nucleotide. These are the atoms not part of the polypeptide N-C-C-O backbone of proteins or the sugar phosphate backbone of nucleic acids. Use the RasMol predefined sets protein and nucleic to distinguish between the two forms of sidechain. Atoms in nucleic acids and proteins are either backbone or sidechain. This set is equivalent to the RasMol expression "(protein or nucleic) and not backbone
All amino acids are classified as either small, medium or large. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "amino and not (medium or large)"
This set contains the atoms in those amino acids that tend (prefer) to be on the surface of proteins, in contact with solvent molecules. This set refers to the amino acids preference and not the actual solvent acessibility for the current protein. All amino acids are classified as either surface or buried. This set is equivalent to the RasMol atom expression "amino and not buried"
This set contains all atoms that form part of a protein turns as determined by either the PDB file author or Kabsch and Sander's DSSP algorithm. By default, RasMol uses the secondary structure determination given in the PDB file if it exists. Otherwise, it uses the DSSP algorithm as used by the RasMol structure command.
This set contains all the heterogenous water molecules in the current database. A large number of water molecules are sometimes associated with protein and nucleic acid structures determined by X-ray crystallography. These atoms tend to clutter an image.
The RasMol amino colour scheme colours amino acids according to traditional amino acid properties. The purpose of colouring is to identify amino acids in an unusual or surprising environment. The outer parts of a protein are polar are visible (bright) colours and non-polar residues darker. Most colours are hallowed by tradition. This colour scheme is similar to the shapely scheme.
The RasMol chain colour scheme assigns each macromolecular chain a unique colour. This colour scheme is particularly usefull for distinguishing the parts of multimeric structure or the individual `strands' of a DNA chain.
The RasMol cpk colour scheme is based upon the colours of the popular plastic spacefilling models which were developed by Corey, Pauling and later improved by Kultun. This colour scheme colour `atom' objects by the atom (element) type. This is the scheme conventionally used by chemists.
The RasMol group colour scheme colour codes residues by their position in a macromolecular chain. Each chain is drawn as a smooth spectrum from blue through green, yellow and orange to red. Hence the N terminus of proteins and 5' terminus of nucleic acids are coloured red and the C terminus of proteins and 3' terminus of nucleic acids are drawn in blue. If a chain has a large number of heterogenous molecules associated with it, the macromolecule may not be drawn in the full `range' of the spectrum.
The RasMol shapely colour scheme colour codes residues by amino acid property. This scheme is based upon Bob Fletterick's "Shapely Models". Each amino acid and nucleic acid residue is given a unique colour. The shapely colour scheme is used by David Bacon's Raster3D program. This colour scheme is similar to the amino colour scheme.
The RasMol structure colour scheme colours the molecule by protein secondary structure. Alpha helices are coloured magenta, beta sheets are coloured yellow, turns are coloured pale blue, [96,128,255] and all other residues are coloured white. The secondary structure is either read from the PDB file (HELIX and SHEET records), if available, or determined using Kabsch and Sander's DSSP algorithm. The RasMol structure command may be used to force DSSP's structure assignment to be used.
The RasMol temperature colour scheme colour codes each atom according to the anisotropic temperature (beta) value stored in the PDB file. Typically this gives a measure of the mobility/uncertainty of a given atom's position. High values are coloured in warmer (red) colours and lower values in colder (blue) colours. This feature is often used to associate a "scale" value [such as amino acid variability in viral mutants] with each atom in a PDB file, and colour the molecule appropriately.
The RasMol user colour scheme allows RasMol to use the colour scheme stored in the PDB file. The colours for each atom are stored in COLO records placed in the PDB data file. This convention was introducted by David Bacon's Raster3D program.
The RasMol type colour scheme applies only to hydrogen bonds, hence is used in the command "colour hbonds type" This colour scheme colour codes each hydrogen bond according to the distance along a protein chain between hydrogen bond donor and acceptor. This schematic representation was introduced by Belhadj-Mostefa and Milner-White. This representation gives a good insight into protein secondary structure (hbonds forming alpha helices appear red, those forming sheets appear yellow and those forming turns appear magenta).