Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Journal of Structural Biology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/yjsbi

UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system

Zheng Yang a, Keren Lasker b,c, Dina Schneidman-Duhovny b, Ben Webb b, Conrad C. Huang a,
Eric F. Pettersen a, Thomas D. Goddard a, Elaine C. Meng a, Andrej Sali b,, Thomas E. Ferrin a,b,
a
Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
b
Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), University of
California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
c
Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Structural modeling of macromolecular complexes greatly benefits from interactive visualization capabil-
Available online xxxx ities. Here we present the integration of several modeling tools into UCSF Chimera. These include com-
parative modeling by MODELLER, simultaneous fitting of multiple components into electron
Keywords: microscopy density maps by IMP MultiFit, computing of small-angle X-ray scattering profiles and fitting
Integrative structural modeling of the corresponding experimental profile by IMP FoXS, and assessment of amino acid sidechain confor-
Restraint-based modeling mations based on rotamer probabilities and local interactions by Chimera.
Electron microscopy
! 2011 Published by Elsevier Inc.
Small-angle X-ray scattering
Interactive molecular visualization

1. Introduction (Goddard et al., 2007; Pintilie et al., 2010). Methods of flexible fit-
ting include molecular dynamics (Trabuco et al., 2008), Monte Car-
Proteins carry out their functions through interactions with lo (Topf et al., 2008), normal mode analysis (Tama et al., 2004), and
other molecules. Of particular interest here are assemblies of mul- morphing (Wriggers, 2010; Wriggers and Chacn, 2001). Restraints
tiple proteins, which are often large, dynamic, flexible, and fragile, such as symmetry (Navaza et al., 2002) and intermolecular dis-
contributing to the difficulty of determining their structures. Even tances (Rossmann et al., 2001) can be incorporated into the fitting
when single structure determination methods fail, however, atom- process. Which available method is best depends on many factors,
ic models of assemblies can be determined by combining multiple including the resolution and symmetry of the density map, the
types of experimental data, including those from X-ray crystallog- availability of additional restraints, and the accuracy of component
raphy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, electron models.
microscopy (EM), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), cross- SAXS profiles have been used widely for low-resolution struc-
linking, mass spectrometry (MS), and affinity purification (Alber tural characterization of molecules in solution (Petoukhov and
et al., 2008; Lasker et al., 2010a; Robinson et al., 2007). Computa- Svergun, 2007; Putnam et al., 2007; Schneidman-Duhovny et al.,
tional integration of diverse experimental data into an ensemble 2010). While a SAXS profile can be converted into an assembly
of models that best satisfy the data is not yet an entirely automated envelope that can in turn be used directly for fitting component
process. Therefore, visualization software, used to set up calcula- molecules (Svergun, 1999), the SAXS measurement has a relatively
tions, assess the results, and troubleshoot problems, is essential low information content the rotationally averaged scattering
for the quality and efficiency of iterative integrative structure intensity versus the scattering angle approximately determines
modeling. only the systems radial distribution function. Thus, a good use of
A common structure determination approach is the fitting of an experimental SAXS profile is to compare it to a profile computed
crystal structures and comparative models into an EM map of the from a 3D structural model that was derived from other data (Pons
full molecular assembly. The structures can be fit as rigid bodies et al., 2010; Schneidman-Duhovny et al., 2010; Svergun et al.,
by sampling globally (Fabiola and Chapman, 2005) or locally 1995). Also, changes in assembly conformation or composition
under variations of pH, salt, temperature, cofactors, and drugs
can be recognized, and candidate models ranked by comparison
Corresponding authors. Addresses: UCSF MC 2552, 1700 4th Street, Suite 503B, of experimental and model-derived SAXS profiles.
San Francisco, CA 94158-2330, USA. Fax: +1 415 514 4231 (A. Sali), UCSF MC 2240, Atomic assembly models often generate invaluable testable
600 16th Street, Rm N472, San Francisco, CA 94158-2517, USA. Fax: +1 415 502 hypotheses. For example, models predict which residues are in
1755 (T.E. Ferrin).
contact at intermolecular interfaces and thus may be essential
E-mail addresses: sali@salilab.org (A. Sali), tef@cgl.ucsf.edu (T.E. Ferrin).

1047-8477/$ - see front matter ! 2011 Published by Elsevier Inc.

doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2011.09.006

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Z., et al. UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system. J. Struct. Biol. (2011), doi:10.1016/
j.jsb.2011.09.006
2 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx

for assembly formation and function. In models built from individ- potential templates. The user can choose one or more of the hits
ual X-ray crystal structures, the sidechain conformations may not to be fetched from the PDB and to be included along with the query
reflect those in the complete assembly, either because of the (target) in a sequence alignment. Sequence alignments in Chimera
induced fit or modeling errors. Thus, analysis of sidechain rotamers are displayed in the Multalign Viewer tool (Meng et al., 2006). This
is useful for assessing residue interactions in the complex tool includes many features, such as automatic sequence-structure
(Guharoy et al., 2010). communication, calculation of measures of conservation, and sim-
We have recently integrated comparative (homology) protein ple editing (e.g., adjusting gaps as well as adding and deleting
structure modeling by MODELLER (Fiser et al., 2000; Marti-Renom sequences). When the alignment is satisfactory, the user can
et al., 2000; Sali and Blundell, 1993), multiple simultaneous fitting choose Structure ? Modeller Tools from the Multalign Viewer
into EM maps by IMP MultiFit (Lasker et al., 2010a, 2009), SAXS menu to set up and launch the MODELLER calculation, to be run
profile fitting by IMP FoXS (Forster et al., 2008; Schneidman- either locally or via a web service. The process is run in the back-
Duhovny et al., 2010), and evaluation of sidechain conformations ground and can be monitored with Chimeras task manager. When
from backbone-dependent and backbone-independent rotamer the results become available, the models are displayed in Chimera
libraries (Dunbrack, 2002; Lovell et al., 2000) into the UCSF Chi- and their associated scores shown in a table (Fig. 1). The table lists
mera molecular visualization package. These capabilities augment the GA341 (Melo et al., 2002), zDOPE and DOPE scores (Pieper
over 100 tools already provided by Chimera for the interactive et al., 2011; Shen and Sali, 2006). Clicking Fetch Scores triggers
analysis of atomic models, density maps, and protein sequences a web service that calculates additional model scores: the esti-
(Couch et al., 2006; Goddard et al., 2005, 2007; Meng et al., mated RMSD and estimated overlap (Eramian et al., 2008).
2006; Morris et al., 2007; Pettersen et al., 2004; Pintilie et al.,
2010). Chimera provides graphical user interfaces to simplify set-
ting up input data and parameters for the fitting process, evaluat- 2.2. IMP: MultiFit
ing results, and performing cycles of refinement for building
models of macromolecular assemblies. The homology modeling, The MultiFit module of IMP simultaneously fits atomic struc-
EM fitting, and SAXS calculations are launched from Chimera and tures of components into their assembly EM density map at reso-
executed remotely via MODELLER- and IMP-based web services lutions as low as 25 (Lasker et al., 2009). The component
(Russel et al., in press), with results displayed in the molecular positions and orientations are optimized with respect to a scoring
visualization environment as they become available. The web ser- function that includes the quality-of-fit of components in the map,
vice approach allows incorporation of improvements without the the protrusion of components from the map envelope, and the
user installing new software, and can provide transparent access shape complementarity between pairs of components. The scoring
to more powerful computing resources. Optionally, calculations function is optimized by the exact inference optimizer DOMINO
can also be performed using locally installed copies of MODELLER that efficiently finds the global minimum in a discrete sampling
and IMP. MultiFit and FoXS are part of the Integrated Modeling space. If cyclic symmetry is specified, the symmetry is imposed
Platform (IMP) package (Russel et al., in press) that performs within the optimization procedure for added efficiency (Lasker
simultaneous optimization of multiple restraint types to generate et al., 2010a).
ensembles of assembly structures consistent with diverse experi-
mental data (Alber et al., 2008; Lasker et al., 2010b; Robinson 2.2.1. MultiFit interface in Chimera
et al., 2007). The Chimera user interfaces described here are a first Chimeras MultiFit GUI (under Tools ? Volume Data in the
step towards a more comprehensive graphical user interface (GUI) menu) takes as input one or more protein structures and an EM
to control and visualize results from this suite of tools. density map. Chimera allows editing structures and maps to gener-
Next, we describe the current assembly modeling tools and ate the desired inputs: structures can be combined and subsets of
then illustrate their range of capabilities on two example systems, their atoms selected or deleted, and specific regions of maps can be
GroEL chaperonin and ARP2/3. extracted. The user can further specify the level and resolution of
the EM map, as well as the number of copies of subunits. Multiple
2. Modeling functionalities in Chimera copies of a structure can be fit assuming cyclic symmetry, or multi-
ple different structures fit without using symmetry. The results are
2.1. Modeller returned as a list of possible configurations with correlation scores
indicating their goodness of fit to the density (Figs. 2 and 5). Choos-
MODELLER is used for homology or comparative modeling of ing a row in the list displays the corresponding set of structures in
protein three-dimensional structures (Eswar et al., 2001; the Chimera graphics window. More than one row can be chosen to
Marti-Renom et al., 2000). The user provides an initial alignment display multiple sets of results simultaneously for comparison; the
of the sequence to be modeled (target) to the sequence(s) of different solutions are shown with different colors. A typical run
one or more known structures (templates). MODELLER then cal- takes a few minutes and can be performed locally or remotely
culates a set of plausible structures containing all non-hydrogen via a web service.
atoms. MODELLER implements comparative modeling by satisfac-
tion of spatial restraints (Sali and Blundell, 1993) and can perform
2.3. IMP: FoXS
many additional tasks, including fold assignment, sequence- and
structure-based alignments, de novo modeling of loops, and model
Fast X-ray Scattering (FoXS), another module of IMP, is a rapid
assessment (Fiser and Sali, 2003; Fiser et al., 2000).
and accurate method for calculating a theoretical SAXS profile
given an atomic structure (Schneidman-Duhovny et al., 2010).
2.1.1. MODELLER interface in Chimera The method explicitly computes all interatomic distances and
In Chimera, the modeling process can be initiated by input of models the first solvation layer based on atomic solvent-accessible
only the target sequence, or if already available, a sequence align- surface areas. Alternatively, a fast coarse-grained profile can be cal-
ment including the target and at least one other sequence for culated based on protein Ca positions only. The theoretical SAXS
which a structure is known. If the input is only the target sequence, profile can be fitted to an experimental SAXS profile by minimizing
BLAST is used via a web service to search the PDB database for a penalty (v2) function.

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Z., et al. UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system. J. Struct. Biol. (2011), doi:10.1016/
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 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx 3

Fig.1. Chimera MODELLER interface and homology models of a monomer of E. coli GroEL. A multiple sequence alignment of the target with hits from a Chimera BLAST query
is displayed in Multalign Viewer (top window). In the Comparative Modeling with Modeller dialog (left), the P0A6F5_EColi (GroEL) sequence is selected as the target and
sequences 1sjp_A, 1sjp_B, 1iok_A and 1we3_H are designated as templates. The resulting modeled structures are shown in a circle around the experimentally determined
structure of E. coli GroEL (PDB: 2NWC) in the UCSF Chimera 3D graphics window. The sequence alignment between the models and 2NWC is also included (bottom window),
as are the modeling scores (Modeller Results window).

2.3.1. FoXS interface in Chimera sample of high-quality structures (Dunbrack, 2002; Lovell et al.,
The FoXS interface (in the Chimera menu, Tools ? Higher-Order 2000). The probabilities can reflect not only residue type but also
Structure ? Small-Angle X-ray Profile) takes as input one or more other information, such as the backbone of the residue, defined
entire structures or the currently selected atoms and, optionally, an by the / and w dihedral angles. The rotamers tool in Chimera fur-
experimental SAXS profile. Results are returned as a two- ther combines data from a rotamer library with the evaluation of
dimensional plot (Fig. 3). If an experimental profile is provided, local non-bonded interactions to facilitate identifying likely side-
the theoretical profile will be scaled to fit the experimental profile chain conformations in the context of an entire structure.
and the v value representing their quality of fit reported in the leg-
end. Advanced options include whether or not to adjust excluded 2.4.1. Rotamers interface in Chimera
volume and hydration parameters to improve the fit, whether or In Chimera, one or more amino acid residues can be selected to
not to apply a background adjustment to the experimental data, indicate positions of interest within a protein structure. The Rota-
and whether or not to perform coarse-graining. The typical running mers tool (under Tools ? Structure Editing in the menu) allows
time is less than a second for a system of a thousand atoms, and specifying an amino acid residue type, which could differ from that
can extend to a few minutes for tens of thousands of atoms. Users in the structure, and the rotamer library to use. Three library
can modify the input structures and recalculate the SAXS profile, options are provided: the Dunbrack backbone-dependent rotamer
and multiple results can be shown on the same plot. library (Dunbrack, 2002), the Richardson backbone-independent
library (Lovell et al., 2000) with the author-recommended com-
2.4. Rotamers mon-atom values, and the Richardson library with modal (peak)
values instead of common-atom. At each selected position, a bou-
Further structural refinement can employ the Chimera Rota- quet of rotamers is displayed (Fig. 4). The rotamer sidechain tor-
mers tool. This tool allows viewing and evaluating likely conforma- sion (v) angles and probabilities from the library are listed in a
tions of amino acid sidechains and incorporating them into separate window. Choosing one or more rows in the list with the
structures. A residue can be updated to a different conformation mouse displays only the corresponding rotamers in the main win-
of the same type of amino acid residue or mutated into a different dow and hides the others. Importantly, the probabilities in the list
type. are taken from the rotamer library and are not affected by the
Rotamer libraries are catalogs of distinct conformations of ami- structural environment, except by / and w angles when the
no acid sidechains and their probabilities, usually extracted from a Dunbrack library is used. The rotamer list Columns menu allows

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Z., et al. UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system. J. Struct. Biol. (2011), doi:10.1016/
j.jsb.2011.09.006
4 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx

Fig.2. MultiFit GUI and multiple fitting of GroEL subunits into EM maps. (A) Cryo-EM map of the apo form of GroEL. (B) Cryo-EM map separated and colored by Chimeras
Segment Maptool. (C) Segmentation regions grouped and merged into cis and trans rings. (D) Multiple subunits placed within the segmented map according to one of the
solutions from MultiFit. (E) Chimeras MultiFit interface, showing fitting with cyclic symmetry. The table lists solutions to the multiple fitting problem and their correlation
coefficient values. (F) The EM map and top-scoring solution (index 0 in the table) are shown in Chimeras 3D graphics window.

calculating the number of clashes (bad contacts) and hydrogen (cis and trans), each containing seven 60 kDa subunits of the same
bonds formed by each rotamer with its surroundings, and showing sequence (Horwich et al., 2007; Ranson et al., 2001; Sigler et al.,
these results as additional columns in the list. If a suitable density 1998; Zeilstraryalls et al., 1991). In this example, we model the
map is present, the rotamers can also be evaluated for their fit to structure of the Escherichia coli GroEL structure based on an EM
the density. The list can be sorted by the values in any column density map (EMDB: 1042) (Ranson et al., 2001) and structural
by clicking the column header. The library and local environment homologs of the subunit. We then assess models by a SAXS profile
information together with interactive viewing of specific rotamers and examine sidechain rotamers of a pair of residues that form a
facilitate identifying the best conformation given the entire con- salt bridge.
text. A single rotamer can be chosen and used to replace the pre-
existing sidechain coordinates. The Rotamers tool is also useful 3.1. Homology modeling of GroEL monomer
for revealing cases where an experimental structure has a nonrota-
meric conformation, possibly due to other local constraints, or sug- The homology modeling input is the amino acid sequence of the
gesting how well a structure might accommodate a particular target, E. coli GroEL (UniProt id: P0A6F5) (Blattner et al., 1997;
mutation and what effect that mutation might have on its function. Burland et al., 1995; Hemmingsen et al., 1988). BLAST was
launched via a Chimera web service to search the PDB database
3. Modeling the GroEL complex for known protein structures with sequence similarity to the target
(the E. coli structures were filtered out from the search results). The
Bacterial chaperonin GroEL is a widely studied ATP-regulated following GroEL structures were chosen as the templates: chains A
molecular machine, composed of two back-to-back stacked rings and B from Mycobacterium tuberculosis chaperonin 60.2 (PDB: 1SJP)

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Z., et al. UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system. J. Struct. Biol. (2011), doi:10.1016/
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 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx 5

template sequences are 59.3%, 57.1%, 63.2%, and 68.0%, respec-

tively (Fig. 1).
The homology modeling process was launched as a web service
from the Chimera-MODELLER interface. After 20 min on the Linux
cluster running the service, ten MODELLER models were returned
along with statistical measures of model accuracy, GA341 (Melo
et al., 2002) and Discrete Optimized Protein Energy (DOPE and
zDOPE, raw and normalized, respectively) (Shen and Sali, 2006).
A zDOPE score below !1 indicates that the distribution of atom
pair distances in the model resembles that found in a large sample
of known protein structures. The Fetch Scores option on the
results dialog was used to calculate two additional scores, Esti-
mated RMSD and Estimated Overlap relative to the true structure
(Eramian et al., 2008).
These models can also be assessed by comparison to any of the
several previously solved structures of E. coli GroEL. The highest-
resolution structure available from the PDB for the intact complex
in the apo form is 2NWC (3.02) (Kiser et al., 2007). We chose to
compare the monomer models to chain A of 2NWC, or 2NWC_A.
The ten models were superimposed on 2NWC_A using the Chimera
Fig.3. SAXS profiles of GroEL. The Chimera-FoXS interface takes as input structures
in Chimera and, optionally, an experimental SAXS profile. The IMP FoXS module MatchMaker tool, with resulting Ca RMSDs ranging from 1.19 to
calculates theoretical SAXS profiles from the structures and plots the results with 1.73 for all residues present in the structure (2NWC_A contains
the experimental data, if provided. Shown here are theoretical SAXS profiles 524 of the 548 residues found within the UniProt sequence file).
calculated from the apo form structure of GroEL (PDB: 2NWC; green line) and the
The result so far is a model of a single subunit. While GroEL con-
structures with the two best correlations (turquoise and red lines, respectively)
from 11 MultiFit models, along with the experimental profile (blue crosses). A
sists of two back-to-back stacked 7-subunit rings, we modeled one
smaller value of v indicates a theoretical profile more similar to the experimental ring at a time using MultiFits cyclic symmetry mode.
profile.

(Qamra and Mande, 2004), chain H from Thermus thermophilus 3.2. Multiple fitting GroEL cis and trans rings
chaperonin (PDB: 1WE3) (Shimamura et al., 2004) and chain A
from Paracoccus denitrificans chaperonin-60 (PDB: 1IOK) (Fukami Next, we used MultiFit to simultaneously fit seven copies of the
et al., 2001) The pairwise identities between the target and subunit into the cryo-EM density map of the GroEL cis ring

Fig.4. Intersubunit salt bridge and Chimera Rotamers. Residues E386 from chain A and R197 from chain B in the optimal model from MultiFit are shown as thick sticks.
Shown as thin lines are sidechain conformations for these residues from the Dunbrack backbone-dependent rotamer library. The Chimera Rotamers tool lists the sidechain
torsion angles, backbone-dependent probabilities, clashes, and number of H-bonds for each rotamer. While the backbone positions of these residues are too far apart to allow
formation of the salt bridge thought to exist in the apo form of GroEL, a closer interaction (4.1 as compared to 5.9 in the MultiFit result) can be obtained using favorable,
zero-clash rotamers of these residues.

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Z., et al. UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system. J. Struct. Biol. (2011), doi:10.1016/
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6 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx

Fig.5. (A) Comparative models of the ARP2/3 subunits. The seven subunits of the ARP2/3 complex are modeled using MODELLER based on multiple templates. (B) Anchor
graph of the ARP2/3 complex as generated by MultiFit for the density map simulated from crystal structure 1TYQ. 1TYQ is also shown, with subunits colored uniquely. (C)
Chimeras MultiFit interface, showing fitting without symmetry. The table lists solutions to the multiple fitting problem and their correlation coefficient values. (D) The top-
scoring MultiFit model within the density map simulated from 1TYQ.

complex and then repeated the procedure for the trans ring (Fig. 2). monomer from MODELLER previously identified as the best match
A cryo-EM map of the ATP-bound state of GroEL is available from to 2NWC_A (lowest-RMSD, see above) and the segmented cryo-EM
the EM Data Bank (EMDB: 1042; Ranson et al., 2001). The cis ring map were chosen and submitted to the MultiFit web service. The
can be extracted using the region bounds option in the Chimera top eleven solutions were returned. Similarly, the trans ring den-
volume viewer or using Chimeras segmentation tool (Pintilie et al., sity was extracted and MultiFit was used to model the second hep-
2010). Through the Chimera-MultiFit GUI, the model of the tameric ring. Subsequently, the two ring models were combined

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Z., et al. UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system. J. Struct. Biol. (2011), doi:10.1016/
j.jsb.2011.09.006
 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx 7

into a single atomic structure (Fig. 2D) using their positions rela- (Robinson et al., 2001), revealing its molecular organization. How-
tive to the original map. The highest-correlation structures of the ever, a structural understanding of how the ARP2/3 complex medi-
two rings were combined to give one atomic model, the second- ates actin filament formation is still limited. EM studies have been
highest-correlation structures of the two rings to give a second useful for investigating ARP2/3 function (Egile et al., 2005). To
model, and so on for a total of six models of the apo form of GroEL. demonstrate the potential application of the Chimera MultiFit tool,
Superposition of the highest-correlation model with the known we simultaneously fit comparative models of the ARP2/3 subunits
structure of E. coli GroEL (PDB: 2NWC) using Chimeras Match- into a simulated 15 density map of ATP-bound ARP2/3 (PDB id:
Maker tool revealed a Ca RMSD of 2.66 for 7336 Ca atom pairs. 1TYQ) (Nolen et al., 2004) created using Chimeras molmap com-
mand (Fig. 5).
3.3. SAXS profiles of GroEL

To further assess the results from previous steps, SAXS profiles 4.1. Comparative modeling of ARP2/3 subunits
of the six model structures and 2NWC were calculated and fit to
the experimental profile provided by Chiu and Ludtke (Ludtke Comparative models were calculated separately for each of the
et al., 2001). We chose the coarse-grained SAXS profile option seven target subunits. BLAST was launched via Chimeras web ser-
(Ca atoms only) because the complexes are large (52,668 atoms), vice to search the PDB database for homologous protein structures.
allowing calculating and fitting a theoretical profile in approxi- Twelve structures were used to model each of the seven target sub-
mately 2 min. The best match between the experimental and the- units (Table 1); 1TYQ subunits were filtered out since these were
oretical profiles is for Model03, with a mediocre v of 10.2 (Fig. 3). used to generate the assembly density map.
The relatively high v value could be a consequence of several fac- A MODELLER comparative modeling process was then launched
tors. First, the solution conformation of GroEL may differ from the from the Chimera-MODELLER interface separately for each target
crystal structure, either within subunits or between subunits. Sec- subunit. Modeling a single subunit took 47 min on the Linux clus-
ond, it is also possible that multiple conformations are present in ter running the MODELLER web service and produced five compar-
solution. Third, the SAXS profile may not have been determined ative models and associated quality scores, as described above. The
or computed accurately. Fetch Scores option in the results dialog was used to calculate
two additional scores, Estimated Ca-RMSD and Estimated Overlap
relative to the hypothetical true structure (Eramian et al., 2008).
3.4. GroEL salt bridge examined with rotamers
The model with the best Estimated Ca-RMSD was selected for each
subunit (Table 2).
Intersubunit salt bridges play a crucial role in the cooperativity
of GroEL (Ranson et al., 2001) and its transitions between func-
tional states (Hyeon et al., 2006; Yang et al., 2009). In the T state,
4.2. Multiple fitting
residue E386 at the end of helix M in the intermediate domain
forms salt bridges with R284, R285 and R197 on adjacent subunits.
The space sampled in simultaneous asymmetric fitting is gener-
These salt bridges stabilize the apo form of GroELs T state. During
ally larger than that sampled in symmetric fitting, as fewer geo-
the transition from the T state to the R state that occurs with ATP
metric restraints are provided. Thus, the user has the option of
binding and hydration, these contacts are disrupted and E386
performing either global or local searches via MultiFit. With the
forms an intersubunit salt bridge with K80 instead. It is desirable
global search option, no prior information regarding subunit posi-
to study the sidechains of these residues, but the resolution of
tions and orientations is used, so no initial placement of the struc-
the EM density map is too low for a generating a precise model
tures is required. Alternatively, the user can approximately place
based on the map alone. Instead, we employ the Chimera Rotamers
the subunits within the density map and perform local searching,
tool. The Dunbrack rotamer library was used in this example. Fig. 4
in which case MultiFit will sample possible solutions for each sub-
shows the rotamers of E386 and R197 that have zero clashes (bad
unit only within a bounding box surrounding the initial placement.
atomic contacts) with their surroundings (thin wires), so these are
These initial placements can come from individual subunit fitting
the rotamers that fit into the structure. The sidechain conforma-
(using, for example, the Chimera Fit in Map tool), manual visual fit-
tions in the model (which were determined by MODELLER at the
ting, or other methods based on prior knowledge of the complex.
monomer-modeling stage) are shown with sticks. For E386, the
For the ARP2/3 system, running MultiFit with global sampling gave
highest-probability zero-clash rotamer matches the conformation
correlation scores for the top ten solutions ranging from 0.8 to 0.86
in the model. The probabilities are based only on backbone confor-
and took approximately 5 min. Comparison of the top-scoring
mation, so clashes are the more important criterion in the context
model to the reference crystal structure gave a Ca-RMSD value of
of the structure. For R197, none of the zero-clash rotamers closely
6.09 and 31% of Ca atoms superposing within 3.5 of their na-
matches the conformation in the model, but these rotamers are no
tive positions. For local sampling, Chimera is first used to launch
less reasonable, and in fact the rotamer listed third in Fig. 4 (third-
a MultiFit anchor graph calculation. The anchor graph suggests
highest-probability of the zero-clash rotamers) is better positioned
approximate centroid positions for the seven subunits (Fig. 5C).
to form a salt bridge with E386 than the conformation in the model
The user can then use the anchor graph as a guide for placing the
(4.1 between NH2 and OE1 vs. 5.9 ). 4.1 is still too far for a
individual subunits within the density. Once initial positions are
good salt bridge interaction, but as close as possible given the
set, a MultiFit run with local sampling can be launched from Chi-
backbone geometry.
mera. With this approach, the top ten solutions for the ARP2/3
assembly had correlation scores ranging from 0.93 to 0.96. The
4. Modeling the ARP2/3 complex local sampling run took about twice as long as the global; although
both calculations are parallelized on the web server (otherwise
The actin-related protein-2/3 (ARP2/3), a seven-protein asym- global sampling could take hours), the local search employs finer
metric complex, plays a major role in the formation of branched sampling. Comparison of the top ten local fitting solutions to the
actin-filament networks during diverse processes ranging from cell reference crystal structure gave Ca-RMSD values of 3.94.7 and
motility to endocytosis (Goley and Welch, 2006). The bovine ARP2/ 7280% of Ca atoms superposing within 3.5 of their native
3 complex structure has been determined by X-ray crystallography positions.

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Z., et al. UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system. J. Struct. Biol. (2011), doi:10.1016/
j.jsb.2011.09.006
8 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx

Table 1
Homology modeling templates of Arp2/3 complex.

PDB ID Name Species Resolution ()

1K8K Crystal structure of Arp2/3 complex Bos taurus 2.00
1U2V Crystal structure of Arp2/3 complex with bound ADP and calcium Bos taurus 2.55
2P9I Crystal structure of bovine Arp2/3 complex co-crystallized with ADP and crosslinked with gluteraldehyde Bos taurus 2.46
2P9K Crystal structure of bovine Arp2/3 complex co-crystallized with ATP and crosslinked with glutaraldehyde Bos taurus 2.59
2P9L Crystal structure of bovine Arp2/3 complex Bos taurus 2.65
2P9N Crystal structure of bovine Arp2/3 complex co-crystallized with ADP Bos taurus 2.85
2P9P Crystal structure of bovine Arp2/3 complex co-crystallized with ADP Bos taurus 2.90
2P9S Structure of bovine Arp2/3 complex co-crystallized with ATP/Mg2+ Bos taurus 2.68
2P9U Crystal structure of bovine Arp2/3 complex co-crystallized with AMP-PNP and calcium Bos taurus 2.75
3DXK STRUCTURE OF BOS TAURUS ARP2/3 COMPLEX WITH BOUND INHIBITOR CK0944636 Bos taurus 2.70
3DXM Structure of Bos taurus Arp2/3 complex with Bound inhibitor CK0993548 Bos taurus 2.85
3RSE Structural and biochemical characterization of two binding sites for nucleation promoting factor WASp-VCA on Arp2/3 complex Bos taurus 2.65

Table 2
Comparative models used for the ARP2/3 subunits.

Subunit (UNIPROT Top estimated RMSD between 1TYQ Shared region in 1TYQ Covered region Native
code, name: #aa) RMSD () and top model () and top model (#aa) (startend, %) Overlap (%)
P61157, ARP2:418 0.949 0.808 399 1418, 100 95
A7MB62, ARP3:394 6.844 0.411 208 140364, 58 92
Q58CQ2, ARPC1:372 1.177 0.252 342 1372, 100 92
Q3MHR7, ARPC2:300 2.836 0.714 274 1281, 94 96
Q3T035, ARPC3:178 0.280 0.248 169 1178, 100 95
Q148J6, ARPC4:168 4.217 0.493 166 1168, 100 97
Q3SYX9, ARPC5:151 2.421 3.470 134 36151, 77 86

5. Discussion versus accommodating more controls and more types of calcula-

tions. For example, the Chimera-MODELLER interface allows
UCSF Chimera is an extensible program for interactive visuali- including water and/or ligand molecules from template structures,
zation and analysis of molecular structures and related data, but only a single protein chain or subunit can be modeled at a time.
including density maps, sequence alignments, docking results, However, the integration described here brings several advanta-
and molecular dynamics trajectories. MODELLER (http://sali- ges. The accessibility of MODELLER, MultiFit, and FoXS calculations
lab.org/modeller) implements comparative protein structure mod- is enhanced by simple graphical interfaces and the provision of web
eling by satisfaction of spatial restraints and can perform many services, so that local installations are not required. Chimera can be
additional tasks, including de novo modeling of loops and optimi- used to search the PDB for modeling templates and to prepare
zation of protein structure with respect to a flexibly defined objec- structures, sequence alignments, and density maps as inputs to
tive function. IMP (http://salilab.org/imp) is a suite of modules, the modeling and fitting calculations. Results can be analyzed in
including MultiFit (http://modbase.compbio.ucsf.edu/multifit/) several ways, including measuring distances and angles, identifying
and FoXS (http://modbase.compbio.ucsf.edu/foxs/), for the integra- hydrogen bonds and other contacts, coloring to show properties
tive structural characterization of macromolecular assemblies. such as residue hydrophobicity and sequence conservation, and
The current work integrates comparative modeling with MOD- superimposing structures.
ELLER, multiple-structure fitting into EM density maps with Multi- Chimeras task manager monitors web service data transfers and
Fit, and SAXS profile calculation and comparison with FoXS into the execution progress. Advanced users/developers could potentially
Chimera system, with easy-to-use graphical user interfaces. The use their own web services to run calculations launched from Chi-
calculations can be run locally or via web services hosted by the mera. Chimeras web services are implemented using the Opal Tool-
UCSF Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics. kit (nbcr.net/software/opal) (Krishnan et al., 2009, 2006).
Chimera includes complete documentation and can be down-
loaded free of charge for noncommercial use, with versions avail-
able for Mac, Windows, and Linux (http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/ 6. Conclusions
chimera). The interfaces and features described here are available
in Chimera daily builds dated September 1, 2011 and later, and will To date, structure determination of challenging macromolecular
be available in Chimera production releases version 1.6 and higher. assemblies requires integration of different data types obtained by
In addition, video tutorials illustrating use of the tools described in multiple methods (Alber et al., 2007). An integrated visualization-
this paper are available at http://www.rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimera/vid- based platform can greatly facilitate modeling tasks and lower the
eodoc/JSB-Yang/index.html. barrier to their use. We have illustrated the modeling of two multi-
Limitations should be noted. MultiFit performs rigid-body protein complexes from sequence to 3D structure using Chimera,
rather than flexible fitting, and the symmetric fitting currently MODELLER, and IMP. We expect that integrative modeling proto-
handles only cyclic symmetries. Furthermore, the Chimera inter- cols, coupled with a user-friendly visualization tool such as Chi-
faces do not provide access to all options that would be available mera, will become increasingly useful and facilitate maximizing
from running MODELLER or IMP modules directly. There is a the coverage, accuracy, resolution and efficiency of the structural
trade-off between keeping the interfaces simple and easy to use, characterization of macromolecular assemblies.

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Z., et al. UCSF Chimera, MODELLER, and IMP: An integrated modeling system. J. Struct. Biol. (2011), doi:10.1016/
j.jsb.2011.09.006
 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Structural Biology xxx (2011) xxxxxx 9

Acknowledgments Krishnan, S., Clementi, L., Ren, J., Papadopoulos, P., Li, W. 2009. Design and
Evaluation of Opal2: A Toolkit for Scientific Software as a Service. Proceedings of
the 2009 Congress on Services - I. IEEE Computer Society, 709716.
The authors gratefully acknowledge Prof. Wah Chiu and Lasker, K., Topf, M., Sali, A., Wolfson, H.J., 2009. Inferential optimization for
Dr. Steven Ludtke for providing the SAXS experimental data for simultaneous fitting of multiple components into a CryoEM map of their
assembly. J. Mol. Biol. 388, 180194.
the GroEL example. The research of K. Lasker was supported by
Lasker, K., Sali, A., Wolfson, H.J., 2010a. Determining macromolecular assembly
continuous mentorship from Prof. Haim J. Wolfson as well as a fel- structures by molecular docking and fitting into an electron density map.
lowship from the Clore Foundation Ph.D. Scholars program. K. Las- Protien Struct. Funct. Bioinform. 78, 32053211.
Lasker, K., Phillips, J.L., Russel, D., Velazquez-Muriel, J., Schneidman-Duhovny, D.,
kers research was carried out in partial fulfillment of the
et al., 2010b. Integrative structure modeling of macromolecular assemblies
requirements for a Ph.D. degree from TAU. This work was funded from proteomics data. Mol. Cell. Proteom.: MCP 9, 16891702.
by NIH Grants R01 GM083960, U54 RR022220, and PN2 Lovell, S.C., Word, J.M., Richardson, J.S., Richardson, D.C., 2000. The penultimate
EY016525 to A. Sali and P41 RR001081 to T.E. Ferrin. rotamer library. Proteins 40, 389408.
Ludtke, S.J., Jakana, J., Song, J.L., Chuang, D.T., Chiu, W., 2001. A 11.5 angstrom single
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