Structural Biology Computational Laboratory

Software Packages


These are the software packages that are currently available on our systems. After a brief description of each program are the unix commands that run the program. The commands are case sensitive.

We will add additional capabilities as necessary.

Commercial Software

Developed by SBCL

Available for Academic Use

InsightII 2005

Accelrys

Our core program, InsightII is used to create, display, and rotate 3-dimentional chemical structures with built-in support for proteins and nucleic acids. The structures can be selectively colored and rendered for aiding analysis.
Manual (pdf)

Type: insightII

Modules:
Discover3

A simulation program available within Insight II. It incorporates a range of well validated forcefields for dynamics simulations, minimization, and conformational searches, allowing you to predict the structure, energetics and properties of organic, inorganic, organometallic, and biological systems.

Discover3 manual (pdf)

Minimization methods are explained in the Forcefield-Based Simulations manual (pdf)

Homology
Aids in building a 3D model of a protein from its amino acid sequence and the known structure of related proteins. Standard techniques of backbone building, loop modeling, structural overlay and statistical analysis of the resulting models are available.

Homology manual (pdf)
Ampac/Mopac
General purpose semiempirical molecular orbital packages for the study of chemical structures and reactions.

See InsightII manual (pdf)
From the InsightII program, click on the Accelrys logo icon in the upper left hand corner and choose the module from the pull down menu. This will load a second list of menu options along the top.
 
 

Cerius2


Accelrys

A molecular modeling and simulation enviorment with specific docking modules.

Type:c2
 

Modeller- version 8v2

Andrej Sali, Roberto Sanchez and Azat Badretdinov-University of California at San Francisco

MODELLER models protein 3D structure by satisfaction of spatial restraints. In principle, the restraints can be derived from a number of different sources. These include homologous structures (comparative modeling), NMR experiments (NMR refinement), rules of secondary structure packing (combinatorial modeling), cross-linking experiments, fluorescence spectroscopy, image reconstruction in electron microscopy, site-directed mutagenesis, intuition, residue-residue and atom-atom potentials of mean force, etc. The output of MODELLER is a 3D structure of a protein that satisfies these restraints as well as possible. The optimization is carried out by the variable target function procedure employing methods of conjugate gradients and molecular dynamics with simulated annealing. MODELLER can also do several other tasks, including multiple comparison of protein sequences and/or structures, clustering, and searching of sequence databases.
MODELLER manual

You must have all the pdb files in the same directory that you will run or a link to them in a pdb database. They must be named the same as the corresponding line in the alignment file.

Version 8v2 is the most recent public release (02/06)
Type: mod8v2 filename.top

To run the tutorial or get a default top file
Type: cp /usr/share/bin/tutorial-model.tar ./ (there is
Type: tar -xvf tutorial-model.tar
Type: cd tutorial-model
Edit model-default.top as necessary
Type: mod8v2 model-default.top
 

GCG-Wisconsin Package

Accelrys

A group of protein and DNA sequence analysis. progams including:
Comparison ,Database Searching and Retrieval ,DNA/RNA Secondary Structure ,Evolution ,Fragment Assembly ,Gene Finding and Pattern Recognition ,Primer Selection ,Protein Analysis ,Translation

The programs can be run with a command line or graphics interface.

For command line:
Telnet to beatrice.rutgers.edu
Type:source /usr/local/gcg/gcgstartup
Type:gcg
Type:gcgsupport
You can begin to use the gcg command line as usual.

For graphic interface:
Connect to beatrice.rutgers.edu using a X windows emulator
Type:source /usr/local/gcg/gcgstartup
Type:gcg
Type:gcgsupport

Type: seqlab
 
 

Staden Package

A group of protein and DNA sequence analysis. programs including:
Assembly,Mutation detection,Sequence screening,Sequence quality clipping
 

Chipgather

Robert S. Muldowney

This program gathers function information from gene chip experiment data.

Sample input file: filename.csv
Sample outputfile: filename.out.csv

Type:chipgather
Enter:[filename.csv]
Enter:[Starting Point- usually 1]
(If the program is interrupted it canbe restarted at the point of interruption)

The program requires a very specific input format(see sample input file).
The data must start on the second line.  There must be 7 columns of data.  The second column must contain the accession number in form XX:XXX and the experiment values must be in the seventh column.

The program can be modified if a different format is required.

Chipsort

Robert S. Muldowney

This program takes the output from the chipgather program and counts the number of genes for each function.

Sample outputfile: filename.out.sort.csv

Type:chipsort
Enter:[filename.out.csv]
 

 Chipsort2

Robert S. Muldowney

The data obtained with the chipgather program is now supplied by some genechip companies, so the sorting program has been modified to accept function data from these files.  The output  now contains the common name for the gene and the ratio value from the experiment.

Sample input file:filename2.csv
Sample output file:filename2.sort.csv

Type:chipsort2
Enter:[filename.csv]

mRNAgather

Robert S. Muldowney

This program gathers the Gene Size, CDS region, and sequence from a list of accession numbers.

Sample output file:filename3.nuc


Type:mrnagather
Enter:[Starting Point- usually 1]
(If the program is interrupted it can be restarted at the point of interruption)

mRNAsearch

Robert S. Muldowney

This program uses the output from the Mrnagather program to search for patterns in the 5',CDS,and 3' regions.  The program accepts wildcards x, y(a or g), and z (c or t) and can be set to match any percentage of the pattern.

Sample output file:filename3.nuc.mat

Type:mrnasearch
Enter:[filename3.nuc]
Enter:[output extension] (recommend adding a number to the end for mulitple searches)
Enter:[filename.seq] (name of file containing the sequence pattern to match
Enter:[Y/N] (to include or exclude CDS region)
Enter:[1-100] (percent of pattern to match    note:patterns with multiple wildcards and low percent match will yield a large number of hits)

Autodock

Garrett M. Morris ,David S. Goodsell, Ruth Huey ,William Lindstrom
William E. Hart,Scott Halliday, Rik Belew, Arthur J. Olson

A suite of automated docking tools. It is designed to predict how small molecules, such as substrates or drug candidates, bind to a receptor of known 3D structure.
Manual

Type:autodock

For the graphical interface:
Type:autodockgr

Volume

F. M. Richards
Determines the volume of a polyhedron surrounding each  selected atom or atoms in a protein when the
polyhedral faces are determined by one of three procedures based on the Voronoi construction.
Manual
 

Type: volume

ACCESS

Mark Handschumacher and F. M. Richards

Calculates the accessibility of the van der Waals surface of atoms to a probe sphere of a given radius specified by the user.
The file should not contain hydrogens.

Type: access
Enter an output file name (extension .acc is our convention)
Enter  1 for the number of coordinate files.
Enter an input file name
For format type: BNL
Check the default format to see if it matches your file format
To accept defaults type each of these followed by a return:
NEXT (The number of atoms assigned default radii should be very low, if it is not,  check the format or the hydrogens.  You can use the h.strip or reduce programs to remove hydrogens.)
NEXT
ALLATM
NEXT
NEXT

Note: Requires a file with no hydrogens

BINS

Peter Kahn

Takes an output file from the access program and distributes the amino acids into groups based on electrostatic properties.

Type: bins
Enter an input file name (usually *.acc)
Enter an output file name

H.Strip

John K. Everett

Removes hydrogens from PDB formatted files.
Type:H.strip <pdb input file> <output file>
 

BOXSHADE

Kay Hofmann-ISREC,Lausanne,Switzerland
and
Michael D. Baron-Institute for Animal Health,Surry,UK

Intended for shading multiple aligned sequence files.
Manual

For small data sets try the BOXSHADE Server.
For large data sets:
Copy six files to the directory from which you will run the program.

Type:cp /usr/share/bin/boxshade3.3.1/box_pep.grp ./
Type:cp /usr/share/bin/boxshade3.3.1/box_pep.par ./
Type:cp /usr/share/bin/boxshade3.3.1/box_pep.sim ./
Type:cp /usr/share/bin/boxshade3.3.1/box_dna.grp ./
Type:cp /usr/share/bin/boxshade3.3.1/box_dna.par ./
Type:cp /usr/share/bin/boxshade3.3.1/box_dna.sim ./

This only needs to be done the first time you run boxshade.

Type:boxshade
Answer the questions.  For most questions the default values are fine, however you must type in the input file name, and the output file name, and the file type must match the input file.
It is recommended also that the question "should position numbers be printed?"  be answered "y" instead of the default no.  This will yield a more useful printout.
 

Molscript

Per Kraulis

A program for creating schematic or detailed molecular graphics images from molecular 3D coordinates
Manual

Type:molscript
 

Bobscript

Rob Esnouf

Extensions to the program molscript
Manual

Type:bobscript
 

MOLMOL- MOLecular analysis MOLecular display

Reto Koradi

MOLMOL is a molecular graphics program for displaying, analyzing, and manipulating the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules, with special emphasis on the study of protein or DNA structures determined by NMR.

Manual

Telnet to beatrice.rutgers.edu
Type: molmol

VMD-Visual Molecular Dynamics

J. Gullingsrud, D. Norris, J. Stone- University of Illinois

VMD is designed for the visualization and analysis of biological systems such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipid bilayer assemblies, etc. It may be used to view more general molecules, as VMD can read standard Protein Data Bank (PDB) files and display the contained structure. VMD provides a wide variety of methods for rendering and coloring a molecule: simple points and lines, CPK spheres and cylinders, licorice bonds, backbone tubes and ribbons, cartoon drawings, and others. VMD can be used to animate and analyze the trajectory of a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. In particular, VMD can act as a graphical front end for an external MD program by displaying and animating a molecule undergoing simulation on a remote computer.
Manual

Telnet to beatrice.rutgers.edu
Type: vmd

RasMol2

Roger Sayle- Glaxo Wellcome Research and Development

Software for looking at macromolecular structure and its relation to function
Manual

Telnet to beatrice.rutgers.edu
Type: rasmol

Kinemage

David C. and Jane S. Richardson - Duke University

A "kinemage" (kinetic image) is a scientific illustration presented as an interactive computer display. Operations on the displayed kinemage respond immediately: the entire image can be rotated in real time, parts of the display can be turned on or off, points can be identified by selecting them, and the change between different forms can be animated. A kinemage is prepared in order to better communicate ideas that depend on 3-dimensional information. The kinemages are distributed as plain text files of commented display lists and accompanying explanations.

Prekin
Prekin makes a starting kinemage from a PDB-format coordinate file which can then be modified on-screen in Mage or off-line in any text editor

Type: prekin
 

Reduce
Reduce is a program for adding hydrogens to a Protein DataBank (PDB) molecular structure file. Hydrogens are added in standardized geometry with optimization of the orientations of OH, SH, NH3+, Met methyls, Asn and Gln sidechain amides, and His rings. Both proteins and nucleic acids can be processed.

Type: reduce "filename"
(use -Help for detailed usage description)
 

Probe
The program Probe allows one to view and score atomic packing, either within or between molecules. It generates "contact dots" where atoms are in close contact

Type: probe "inputfile.pdb" >> "outputfile.kin"
(use -Help for detailed usage description)

Mage
Mage is a 3D vector display program which shows "kinemage" graphics.

Type: mage

Sculpt2.1

MDL Information Systems

Desktop energy minimization and molcular visualization software.

This program cannot be run over the network.
Log onto beatrice.rutgers.edu
Type: sculpt

Raster3d

David J. Bacon and Ethan A Merritt- University of Washington School of Medicine

Raster3D is a set of tools for generating high quality raster images of proteins or other molecules. Ancillary programs process atomic coordinates from Brookhaven PDB files into rendering descriptions for pictures composed of ribbons, space-filling atoms, bonds, ball+stick, etc. Raster3D can also be used to render pictures composed in Per Kraulis' program MOLSCRIPT in glorious 3D with highlights, shadowing, etc. Output is to pixel image files with 24 bits of color information per pixel.
Raster3d manual

by arrangement

PAUP

David Swofford

Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (PAUP) software package for inference of evolutionary trees.
PAUP4 manual (pdf)

by arrangement