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Figure 4 | BMC Structural Biology

Figure 4

From: ProteinShader: illustrative rendering of macromolecules

Figure 4

Untwisting β-strand ribbons. (A) The local coordinate frames for two β-strands are calculated using the same algorithm as for the α-helix in Figure 3. In this view, the direction of the y-axis (yellow) of the local frames can be seen to alternate by approximately 180 degrees for each successive α-carbon in a chain. (B) The ribbons drawn using the local coordinates frames shown in (A) have a highly twisted appearance, making the text labels texture mapped onto their surface very difficult to read. (C) The local frames for the β-strands in (A) are shown after being adjusted by an algorithm that compares the local frames for successive α-carbons and, if necessary, rotates frames 180 degrees about their z-axis. (D) The ribbons drawn using the local coordinate frames shown in (C) have a smoothed out appearance. The direction of the text labels indicates the amino to carboxyl direction of the polypeptide chain.

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