Caption: 3D interactive visualization of selected RNA structural features enabled by the DSSR-Jmol integration (
http://jmol.x3dna.org). Clockwise from upper left: Structure of the xpt-pbuX guanine riboswitch in complex with hypoxanthine (PDB id: 4fe5) in ‘base blocks’ representation. The three-way junction loop encompassing the metabolite (in space-filling representation) is color-coded by base identity: A, red; C, yellow; G, green; U, cyan. The loop-loop interaction (a kissing-loop motif) at the top is highlighted in red (upper left corner). Structure of the
Thermus thermophilus 30S ribosomal subunit in complex with antibiotics (PDB id: 1fjg) in step diagram. The 16S ribosomal RNA is color-coded in spectrum with the 5′-end in blue and the 3′-end in red (upper middle). Structure of the classic L-shaped yeast phenylalanine tRNA (PDB id: 1ehz) in step diagram, with the three hairpin loops highlighted in red and the [2,1,5,0] four-way junction loop in blue (upper right corner). Structure of the Pistol self-cleaving ribozyme (PDB id: 5ktj), showcasing (in red) the horizontal helix in space-filling representation. The
helix is composed of six short
stems stabilized via
coaxial stacking interactions (bottom).
Upper left corner (Jmol script:
4fe5.scr; image:
4fe5.png):
# Jmol 14.17.1 (2017-05-27)
load =4fe5/dssr
select nts; display nts
rotate best; rotate z 90; rotate y 50
cartoon only
set cartoonsteps off
set cartoonblocks on
set antialiasdisplay on
background white; color grey
select within(dssr, "junctions..1"); color nucleic
select within(dssr, "junctions..2"); color red
select HPA; cpk; color cpk
frank off
write PNGJ 3000 3000 4fe5-raw.png
Upper middle (Jmol script:
1fjg.scr; image:
1fjg.png):
# Jmol 14.17.1 (2017-05-27)
load =1fjg/dssr
select nts; display nts
rotate best; rotate z 90
cartoon only
set cartoonsteps on
set cartoonblocks off
set antialiasdisplay on
background white; color monomer
frank off
write PNGJ 3000 3000 1fjg-raw.png
Upper right corner (Jmol script:
1ehz.scr; image:
1ehz.png):
# Jmol 14.17.1 (2017-05-27)
load =1ehz/dssr
select nts; display nts
rotate best; rotate z 90
cartoon only
set cartoonsteps on
set cartoonblocks off
set antialiasdisplay on
background white; color grey
select hairpins; color red
select junctions; color blue
frank off
write PNGJ 3000 3000 1ehz-raw.png
Bottom (Jmol script:
5ktj.scr; image:
5ktj.png):
# Jmol 14.17.1 (2017-05-27)
load =5ktj/dssr
select nts; display nts
rotate best
cartoon only
set cartoonsteps off
set cartoonblocks off
set antialiasdisplay on
background white; color grey
select within(dssr, "helices..2"); color red; cpk
frank off
write PNGJ 3000 3000 5ktj-raw.png
The 'raw' images were automatically generated from the corresponding script files via command line using the Jmol application with options
-ions. The ImageMagick
convert program was used to remove empty boundaries. Using 4fe5 as an example, the procedure is as follows:
jmol -ions 4fe5.scr # generate 4fe5-raw.png
convert -trim +repage -border 10 -bordercolor white 4fe5-raw.png 4fe5.png
The four images were then combined using
InkScape, and exported to one big composite PNG file (
DSSR-Jmol-for-NAR17-web-cover.png, 18MB).
Finally, the tarball file,
reproduce-dssr-jmol.tar.gz, contains all the scripts and data files for reproducing the cover image.