DYNDOM (CCP4: Supported Program)

NAME

dyndom - determine dynamic domains when two conformations are available

SYNOPSIS

dyndom command_file

DESCRIPTION

For complete and up-to-date information, see the DynDom Home Page.

DynDom is a program that determines protein domains, hinge axes and amino acid residues involved in the hinge bending. It is fully automated.

You can use DynDom if you have two conformations of the same protein. These may be two X-ray structures, or structures generated using simulation techniques such as molecular dynamics or normal mode analysis.

The application of DynDom provides a view of the conformational change that is easily understood. The conformational change may be quite complicated in detail, but by using DynDom you can visualize it as involving the movement of domains as quasi-rigid bodies. The analysis of a conformational change in terms of domain movements only makes sense if the interdomain deformation is at least comparable to the intradomain deformation. You can use DynDom to access this, but the results could be misleading if this is not the case.

INPUT AND OUTPUT FILES

Input

command_file
The name of the command file should be given as the sole argument to dyndom. This file specifies the PDB file names, chain identifiers, if they exist, and the control parameter settings (see below and examples).
Two PDB files
The names of the two PDB files containing the two conformations should be given in the command file.

Output

foo_info
A file that gives all the relevant information on the conformational change in terms of domain motions.
foo_pdb
An pdb-formated file that gives the coordinates of atoms from both chains. The conformation of the first is as it is in its original PBD file. The second chain has been repositioned such that its "fixed" domain is superposed on the fixed domain of the first. "Arrow molecules" are at the end of this file and depict the interdomain screw axes. The residue at the centre of each segment of the sliding window has written in the B-factor column of the first chain, the absolute rotation (in radians) of the segment. One can visualise this by selecting "Temperature" from the "Colours" menu in RasMol.
foo_rotvecs
A rotation vector file in PDB format for display using RasMol. Each "atom" is located at a point whose coordinates are the components of the rotation vector representing the rotation of a particular backbone segment. The number of atom gives the number of the residue at the centre of the backbone segment.
foo_rasscript
A RasMol script file for display of the protein, its domains, its interdomain screw axes and residues involved in the interdomain motion. The first conformation will be coloured according to domain and bending region, whilst the second is left grey or white. This file can also used to display the rotation vectors.
foo_dihedral
A dihedral analysis file that compares dihedral angle changes in the bending regions.
To display the rotation vectors using RasMol, simply enter the command:

 rasmol foo_rotvecs -script foo_rasscript 

To display the protein to view the domains etc, simply enter the command:

 rasmol foo_pdb -script foo_rasscript 

Control Parameters

window

A sliding window is used to generate backbone segments whose rotation vectors are calculated for the clustering algorithm. The longer the window the better local intrasegment rotations, which may have nothing to do with the domain motion, are eliminated. A shorter window, however, is preferable if one wants to accurately identify those residues involved in the interdomain bending. In any case the length of the window should be short compared to the minimum domain size. The length of the window is specified by the number of residues. The length of the window must be odd as the central residue must be defined. Default=5

domain

This sets the minimum domain size in number of residues. It depends on your feeling on how big a domain should be, to be called a domain. It can be set as small as you like, but it wouldn't be logical to make it smaller than the window length. Default=10% of total number of residues

ratio

This value gives the minimum value for the ratio of interdomain displacement to intradomain displacement for a domain pair. For a precise definition of this value see the DynDom main reference. There is no clear cutoff for this value, but the lower it is for a domain pair, the less sensible it is to analyse their motion in terms of an interdomain motion. The program calculates this value for every prospective domain pair and outputs it to the screen. If you set the minimum to a value much less than 1.0 you may end up analyzing meaningless results. Default=1.0

Description of the Basic Methodology

Determination of Dynamic Domains

The program first determines the "dynamic domains." First, a whole protein best fit of the two conformations is made. Then, rotation vectors of residues or short main-chain segments are determined. A clustering algorithm is then used to identify clusters of rotation vectors. Groups of residues forming these clusters form possible dynamic domains.

Determination Hinge Axes

Groups of residues are only accepted for the analysis of hinge axes if they satisfy a criterion based on the ratio of the interdomain displacement to intradomain displacement with another group of residues with which there exists a physical connection. If this is the case the two groups of residues form dynamic domains and their interdomain motion is meaningful. The axes determined are in fact interdomain screw axes. This is based on the theorem of Chasles which states that the general displacement of a rigid body is a screw motion. The location of the interdomain screw axis tells us something about the kind of motion allowed by the interdomain connections. It is possible for the interdomain screw axis to be located far away from the interdomain connections if they are very flexible. Only if the interdomain screw axis is located near to those residues involved in the interdomain bending (defined below) can we think of the axis as a hinge axis. In such a case we call the axis an, "effective hinge axis" and the residues are said to be acting as "mechanical hinges."

Determination of Residues Involved in Interdomain Bending

If one domain is fixed in space with the other rotating, then one will see a rotational transition in the connecting region between the two domains. One can define the residues involved in the interdomain bending to be those at the interdomain boundaries, as found by the clustering algorithm, plus those neighbouring residues whose rotations are outside the main distribution of the domain to which they belong.

Closure and Twist Motion

Axes can be classified into two extreme types: those parallel to the line joining the centres of mass of a pair of domains, and those perpendicular to this line. The former are called twist axes, the latter, closure axes. Any axis can be decomposed into components parallel or perpendicular to this line and a percentage measure of the degree of closure motion can be defined from the square of the projection on the closure axis.

How DynDom Works

DynDom uses the K-means clustering algorithm to find clusters of rotation vectors. The number of clusters found is specified by the user, but should be set high as DynDom automatically finds the largest number of clusters for which one may reasonably regard the conformational change in terms of domain motions.

DynDom uses the K-means clustering algorithm to find clusters of rotation vectors.

A cluster in rotation space may not correspond to a cluster in real space, but rather a fragmented region. Such a fragmented region one would not normally call a domain. DynDom splits up any clusters that do not correspond to heavy atoms connected through a network of distances of 3.5 angstrom or less, into domains. In order for DynDom to analyse domain pairs in terms of their interdomain movement two criteria must be satisfied. The first concerns the minimum domain size. If a domain comprises fewer residues than the minimum domain size set by the user, then segments from this domain are united with the larger domains they are embedded in. If all the domains from any single cluster are smaller than the minimum domain size, the program stops, unless this the first cluster found (K=2).

For every domain larger than the minimum size, the program checks which are connected directly through the backbone (not through another domain), and calculates the ratio of interdomain displacement to intradomain displacement for every connected pair. If this ratio is less than the user specified minimum (the second criterion) then this pair are not analysed. The program finds the largest number of clusters for which all connected domain pairs that satisfy both criteria. It is these domain pairs that are analysed in terms of interdomain screw axes, etc. If this is not possible it will analyse any domain pair for interdomain screw axes, etc, provided that the two criteria are satisfied.

EXAMPLES

Example script for adenylate kinase can be found in $CEXAM/unix/runnable/

AUTHOR

Steve Hayward

REFERENCES

  1. Method:
    S.Hayward, A.Kitao, H.J.C.Berendsen, Model-Free Methods of Analyzing Domain Motions in Proteins from Simulation: A Comparison of Normal Mode Analysis and Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Lysozyme Proteins, Structure, Function and Genetics, 27, 425, 1997.
  2. DynDom main reference:
    S.Hayward, H.J.C.Berendsen, Systematic Analysis of Domain Motions in Proteins from Conformational Change; New Results on Citrate Synthase and T4 Lysozyme Proteins, Structure, Function and Genetics, 30, 144, 1998.
  3. Applications:
    B.L.de Groot, S.Hayward, D.van Aalten, A.Amadei, H.J.C.Berendsen, Domain Motions in Bacteriophage T4 Lysozyme; a Comparison between Molecular Dynamics and Crystallographic Data Proteins, Structure, Function and Genetics, 31, 116, 1998.
    D.Roccatano, A.E.Mark,S.Hayward, Investigation of the Mechanism of Domain Closure in Citrate Synthase by Molecular Dynamics Simulation J. Mol. Biol. , 310, 1039, 2001.