Curved Helix Cylinders

Protein α-helices can be shown as curved-cylinder “tubes“ with the cartoon style command. Helix tube mode is an alternative to the standard spiraling ribbons, and both modes are fully integrated with coil and β-strand cartoons. The structure at left is an AMPA-subtype glutamate receptor bound to the antiepileptic drug perampanel (PDB 5l1f). The receptor is tetrameric, and each chain is rainbow color-coded from blue at the N-terminus to red at the C-terminus. Four molecules of perampanel (pink) are bound near the bottom, between the transmembrane domain and the rest of the receptor. For image setup other than orientation, see the command file ampar.cxc.

See also: Presets menu

The architecture of the human ribosome has been determined at near-atomic resolution by electron microscopy (Anger et al., Nature 497:80 (2013)). The structure, comprising 82 proteins and five RNA molecules, is shown with shadows cast from all directions to accentuate depth. In the background are schematic representations of contacts between the component molecules.

See the image setup script card.cxc using the 'Tis the Season color palette (credit to MrsP). See also the RBVI holiday card gallery.

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