Partial Walkthrough of "Assignment" 1

This will give you a partial walkthrough (written by a student) of how to go about completing assignment 1.
Please be sure to attend next week's session for a more thorough and complete explanation!

Search and download PDB file

Start by going into RCSB Protein Data Bank's website.
Type in the PDB ID of the biomolecule you want and search.




Here you will find a lot of information about the biomolecule. You should look around and see what types of information are available. You can find the PDB text file to download on the left side.




You may also download the PDB text file directly from here or simply view it from your browser here.

Making sense of the PDB file

The first few lines contain header information about the biomolecule such as its name, author, literature references, etc.
HEADER    TRANSFERASE(PHOSPHOTRANSFERASE)         08-JAN-93   1ATP              
TITLE     2.2 ANGSTROM REFINED CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF THE CATALYTIC               
TITLE    2 SUBUNIT OF CAMP-DEPENDENT PROTEIN KINASE COMPLEXED WITH              
TITLE    3 MNATP AND A PEPTIDE INHIBITOR                                        
COMPND    MOL_ID: 1;                                                            
COMPND   2 MOLECULE: CAMP-DEPENDENT PROTEIN KINASE;                             
COMPND   3 CHAIN: E;                                                            
COMPND   4 EC: 2.7.1.37;                                                        
COMPND   5 ENGINEERED: YES;                                                     
COMPND   6 MOL_ID: 2;                                                           
COMPND   7 MOLECULE: PEPTIDE INHIBITOR PKI(5-24);                               
COMPND   8 CHAIN: I;                                                            
COMPND   9 ENGINEERED: YES                                                      
SOURCE    MOL_ID: 1;                                                            
SOURCE   2 ORGANISM_SCIENTIFIC: MUS MUSCULUS;                                   
SOURCE   3 MOL_ID: 2;                                                           
SOURCE   4 ORGANISM_SCIENTIFIC: MUS MUSCULUS                                    
KEYWDS    TRANSFERASE(PHOSPHOTRANSFERASE)                                       
EXPDTA    X-RAY DIFFRACTION                                                     
AUTHOR    J.ZHENG,E.A.TRAFNY,D.R.KNIGHTON,N.-H.XUONG,S.S.TAYLOR,                
AUTHOR   2 L.F.TENEYCK,J.M.SOWADSKI                                             
REVDAT   1   15-APR-93 1ATP    0                                                
JRNL        AUTH   J.ZHENG,E.A.TRAFNY,D.R.KNIGHTON,N.H.XUONG,                   
JRNL        AUTH 2 S.S.TAYLOR,L.F.TEN EYCK,J.M.SOWADSKI                         
JRNL        TITL   2.2 A REFINED CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF THE CATALYTIC             
JRNL        TITL 2 SUBUNIT OF CAMP-DEPENDENT PROTEIN KINASE COMPLEXED           
JRNL        TITL 3 WITH MNATP AND A PEPTIDE INHIBITOR.                          
JRNL        REF    ACTA CRYSTALLOGR.,SECT.D      V.  49   362 1993              
JRNL        REFN   ASTM ABCRE6  DK ISSN 0907-4449     
Next section is the remarks section, also meant to be read by humans. It gives lots of information about the experiment methods, techniques, results, etc.

The following section provides the amino acid sequences of each chain, beginning at the N-terminal. The third column indicates chain (in this example, we have two chains, E and I), fourth column indicates how many amino acids in that chain, and the following columns list the sequence of amino acids.
SEQRES   1 E  350  GLY ASN ALA ALA ALA ALA LYS LYS GLY SER GLU GLN GLU          
SEQRES   2 E  350  SER VAL LYS GLU PHE LEU ALA LYS ALA LYS GLU ASP PHE          
SEQRES   3 E  350  LEU LYS LYS TRP GLU THR PRO SER GLN ASN THR ALA GLN          
SEQRES   4 E  350  LEU ASP GLN PHE ASP ARG ILE LYS THR LEU GLY THR GLY          
SEQRES   5 E  350  SER PHE GLY ARG VAL MET LEU VAL LYS HIS LYS GLU SER          
SEQRES   6 E  350  GLY ASN HIS TYR ALA MET LYS ILE LEU ASP LYS GLN LYS          
SEQRES   7 E  350  VAL VAL LYS LEU LYS GLN ILE GLU HIS THR LEU ASN GLU          
SEQRES   8 E  350  LYS ARG ILE LEU GLN ALA VAL ASN PHE PRO PHE LEU VAL          
SEQRES   9 E  350  LYS LEU GLU PHE SER PHE LYS ASP ASN SER ASN LEU TYR          
SEQRES  10 E  350  MET VAL MET GLU TYR VAL ALA GLY GLY GLU MET PHE SER          
SEQRES  11 E  350  HIS LEU ARG ARG ILE GLY ARG PHE SER GLU PRO HIS ALA          
SEQRES  12 E  350  ARG PHE TYR ALA ALA GLN ILE VAL LEU THR PHE GLU TYR          
SEQRES  13 E  350  LEU HIS SER LEU ASP LEU ILE TYR ARG ASP LEU LYS PRO          
SEQRES  14 E  350  GLU ASN LEU LEU ILE ASP GLN GLN GLY TYR ILE GLN VAL          
SEQRES  15 E  350  THR ASP PHE GLY PHE ALA LYS ARG VAL LYS GLY ARG THR          
SEQRES  16 E  350  TRP THR LEU CYS GLY THR PRO GLU TYR LEU ALA PRO GLU          
SEQRES  17 E  350  ILE ILE LEU SER LYS GLY TYR ASN LYS ALA VAL ASP TRP          
SEQRES  18 E  350  TRP ALA LEU GLY VAL LEU ILE TYR GLU MET ALA ALA GLY          
SEQRES  19 E  350  TYR PRO PRO PHE PHE ALA ASP GLN PRO ILE GLN ILE TYR          
SEQRES  20 E  350  GLU LYS ILE VAL SER GLY LYS VAL ARG PHE PRO SER HIS          
SEQRES  21 E  350  PHE SER SER ASP LEU LYS ASP LEU LEU ARG ASN LEU LEU          
SEQRES  22 E  350  GLN VAL ASP LEU THR LYS ARG PHE GLY ASN LEU LYS ASN          
SEQRES  23 E  350  GLY VAL ASN ASP ILE LYS ASN HIS LYS TRP PHE ALA THR          
SEQRES  24 E  350  THR ASP TRP ILE ALA ILE TYR GLN ARG LYS VAL GLU ALA          
SEQRES  25 E  350  PRO PHE ILE PRO LYS PHE LYS GLY PRO GLY ASP THR SER          
SEQRES  26 E  350  ASN PHE ASP ASP TYR GLU GLU GLU GLU ILE ARG VAL SER          
SEQRES  27 E  350  ILE ASN GLU LYS CYS GLY LYS GLU PHE THR GLU PHE              
SEQRES   1 I   20  THR THR TYR ALA ASP PHE ILE ALA SER GLY ARG THR GLY          
SEQRES   2 I   20  ARG ARG ASN ALA ILE HIS ASP       
Following sections provide information about HET groups, secondary structure elements, and crystal information.

Then comes the bulk of the pdb file, the ATOM records. Each line provides information about one atom, defined as shown below.

  Atom Name                         XYZ coordinates
  (CG = Carbon Gamma)    Chain      (in angstroms)           Occupancy
          \             /              /  |  \              / 
    Atom#  \ Amino Acid/   Amino Acid#/   |   \            /    B-factor
       \    \     |   /   /          /    |    \          /    / 
ATOM    146  CG  GLU E  31       0.362   8.005 -23.998  1.00100.00           C  
ATOM    147  CD  GLU E  31       0.915   7.429 -25.259  1.00100.00           C  
ATOM    148  OE1 GLU E  31       0.055   7.483 -26.258  1.00 96.20           O  
ATOM    149  OE2 GLU E  31       2.038   6.951 -25.320  1.00 98.06           O  
ATOM    150  N   THR E  32       0.042  11.783 -21.629  1.00 95.23           N  
ATOM    151  CA  THR E  32      -0.349  13.144 -21.293  1.00 14.13           C  
ATOM    152  C   THR E  32      -0.291  13.360 -19.791  1.00 34.92           C  
ATOM    153  O   THR E  32      -1.285  13.365 -19.069  1.00 45.19           O  
ATOM    154  CB  THR E  32      -1.699  13.556 -21.967  1.00 43.93           C  
ATOM    155  OG1 THR E  32      -2.131  12.551 -22.893  1.00 35.19           O  
ATOM    156  CG2 THR E  32      -1.533  14.872 -22.729  1.00 18.94           C  
ATOM    157  N   PRO E  33       0.931  13.513 -19.326  1.00 41.99           N  
ATOM    158  CA  PRO E  33       1.203  13.723 -17.938  1.00 37.35           C  
ATOM    159  C   PRO E  33       0.718  15.099 -17.515  1.00100.00           C  
ATOM    160  O   PRO E  33       0.745  16.037 -18.334  1.00 21.69           O  
ATOM    161  CB  PRO E  33       2.735  13.669 -17.818  1.00 14.27           C  
ATOM    162  CG  PRO E  33       3.320  13.724 -19.217  1.00100.00           C  
ATOM    163  CD  PRO E  33       2.154  13.594 -20.175  1.00 19.71           C  
ATOM    164  N   SER E  34       0.275  15.204 -16.248  1.00 62.63           N  
ATOM    165  CA  SER E  34      -0.206  16.475 -15.725  1.00 17.64           C  
ATOM    166  C   SER E  34       0.911  17.336 -15.147  1.00 91.45           C  
ATOM    167  O   SER E  34       1.930  16.835 -14.654  1.00 35.12           O  


Extra Credit: Using software to display the structure

Opening 1ATP.pdb with a viewer such as PyMOL can allow you to do fun things!

Here is what the surface of this molecule looks like. Note that green is carbon, oxygen is red, and nitrogen is blue.


Now let's show it with spheres:


Here's a cartoon diagram. The red structure on the bottom is the I chain (peptide inhibitor).


Let's model this with sticks now. Notice the orange in the middle.


Zooming in on that orange, can you tell what it is now? (hint: orange is phosphate)


Teal here represents the I chain. Zooming in on the last three amino acids, you can easily tell what they are (if you know your amino acids!)


Notice that this fits with the PDB file we read eariler:
SEQRES   1 I   20  THR THR TYR ALA ASP PHE ILE ALA SER GLY ARG THR GLY
SEQRES   2 I   20  ARG ARG ASN ALA ILE HIS ASP

Trivia: The background image on the homepage is of this structure!

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