Documentation for the HOLE: 9.0 An example run
Copyright 1997 by Oliver S. Smart

 <<Previous Section  Hole Doc. Index^  HOLE home  OSS home  comments?  Next Section>>

Navigation:
Back to contents
Back to previous section 8.0 Using HOLE to predict conductance properties of ion channels
On to next section 10.0 Future Developments and Applications to date

9.0 An example run: analyzing the cavity in the Arseniev gramicidin structure

* All the files used in this example are supplied with hole and can be found in directory ~/hole2/example. If you want to work through the steps involved then use the files in ~/hole2/work as a starting point.

* The starting point of the run is the structure for the channel form of gramicidin A determined by Arseniev and co-workers (A.S.Arseniev,I.L.Barsukov,V.F.Bystrov,A.L.Lomize, Yu.A.Ovchinnikov 1H-NMR Study Of Gramicidin A Transmembrane Ion Channel Febs Letts. 186 168- 1985).

* As the pdb file of this structure contains an ensemble of five structures the first stage was to select out one of these with an editor. The result is the file 1grm_single.pdb. Note that if you wished to analyze all five structures at once this would be possible by splitting the file into 5 seperate pdb files and using a wildcard * in the coord card.

* This structure was then examined using QUANTA - it is clear that the channel lies up the y axis. To obtain an approximate starting point within the channel two atoms were picked on opposite sides of the pore at the centre and their coordinates were averaged (the result was 0. 0. 3.).

* This information was then used to write a suitable hole control file example.inp:
! This is an example of how to run hole
! example input file run on Arseniev's gramicidin structure
! note everything preceeded by a "!" is a comment and will be ignored by HOLE
!
! This example run by line:
! hole < example.inp > example.out &
!
! first cards which must be quoted 
! note that HOLE is case insensitive (except file names)
coord 1grm_single.pdb           ! Co-ordinates in pdb format
radius ~/hole2/rad/simple.rad	! Use simple AMBER vdw radii
				! n.b. can use ~ in hole
cvect  0 1 0                    ! channel runs approx up Y axis
cpoint 0 0 3 		 	! a point in pore
!
! now optional cards
sample 0.25                     ! distance between planes
pltout example.qpt              ! quanta plot file output
sphpdb example.sph              ! pdb format output of hole sphere centre 
				! (for use in sphqpt program)
endrad 5.			! to avoid having enormous ends
molqpt  stick.qpt                ! qpt file of the molecule
                                ! (stick plot in one colour)

* hole is run by typing the command:
	hole < example.inp > example.out &
	
Four files are produced at the end of the run (which should take less than five minutes on all but the slowest workstation):

  1. example.out which is the log file of the hole run and has a table giving information for plotting graphs at the end. In this case it shows that the minimum radius of the channel is 1.20Å. *** information to be added about how to get a nice graph from sigmaplot ***

  2. example.qpt a quanta format binary 3D plot format file for the HOLE run (see pltout card for format details). The file will have a (green) dot surface and a yellow centre line. This file can be displayed in quanta or converted for use with other packages.

  3. example.sph This is a pdb format file which contains the sphere centres as "ATOM" records. It can be treated like a normal pdb file (e.g., it can be displayed using a molecular graphics program). However, its primary purpose is to be used as input to the program sphqpt to produce colour coded and gridded hole surfaces (see next paragraph).

  4. stick.qpt this is qpt file containing a simple monocolour stick plot of the molecule. We have specified this card to produce a pretty picture of the molecule together with the HOLE surface. If you use QUANTA you can produce better versions leaving out a number of atoms (e.g., just plotting the main chain).

* We will use the program sphqpt to produce a grid surface of the HOLE run colour coded according to pore radius. Typed input is indicated thus with the "Enter" or "Return" key indicated as ®, # indicates a comment which should not be entered.
jura> sphqpt®
 *** Program sphqpt ***
 Reads a pdb format file produced by hole
 option SPHPDB which contains sphere centre info,
 and outputs a quanta plot file with the hole surface
 either as a dot or grid representation

 Version H2alpha1
 (c) 1996 Oliver Smart & Birkbeck College, All rights reserved.
 Program linked at Mon Feb 26 16:24:34 GMT 1996
 Last modified .f files:
       24389 Feb 26 16:22 machine_dep.f
       26903 Feb 26 16:21 sphqpt.f
       10593 Feb 26 16:21 qplot.f

 Please enter input pdb format (old) filename
 defaults <example.sph> ext:<.sph> (abort by EXIT or ^D) : ® # the default name is correct just hit return
 Please enter output binary hydra/quanta plot (new) filename
 defaults <example.qpt> ext:<.qpt> (abort by EXIT or ^D) : example_grid® # new name
 Do you want the centre lines drawn in output file? (y/n) <y>:® # (yes)
 It is possible to enter a number to which all the sphere
   centre radii will be set regardless of value in file.
 Enter value <leave radii alone>: ® # use default
 This program can either do a dot surface (which is fast) or
    a curving grid surface (which is must slower).
    Do you want a dot (D) or grid (G) surface? <dot>:  # enter g for grid
 The density of the grid surface is controlled by DMULT
 A value of 2.0 will produce a rather rough surface, 1.3 a
 rather dense surface - 1.8 is a reasonable compromise.
 N.b. procedure takes much longer than dot surface.
 What value for DMULT? <1.8>: ® # use default
 Do you want to colour surface according to pore radius? <n>:   # colour according to radius
 What upper radius for low radius colour (red) <1.15>: ® # use default
 What upper radius for mid radius colour (green) <2.30>: ® # use default
 What upper radius for high radius colour (blue) <999>: ® # use default
 Outputing centre line to quanta colour 4 (default yellow)
 Outputing low rad surface to quanta colour 3 (default red)
 Pass     1 for this colour
   Number of vertices output so far     0
 Pass     2 for this colour
   Number of vertices output so far     0
 Outputing mid rad surface to quanta colour 7 (default green)
 Pass     1 for this colour
   Number of vertices output so far    70
 Pass     2 for this colour
   Number of vertices output so far    78
 Outputing high rad surface to quanta colour 2 (default blue)
 Pass     1 for this colour
   Number of vertices output so far    81
 Pass     2 for this colour
   Number of vertices output so far    81
STOP FORTRAN STOP - sphqpt normal completion. statement executed
jura>

At the end of this we have produced a gridded hole surface in file example_grid.qpt. It is coloured so that parts of the channel whose pore radius is below 1.15 Å - which is the minimum radius to accommodate a water molecule - should be shown in red. Where the pore radius is above 2.3 Å - sufficient to fit two water molecules in side by side are going to be shown in blue. The intermediate zone with a pore radius sufficient to fit just one water molecule will be displayed in green.

*For information about getting you molecular graphics program to display the file example_grid.qpt (produced in the previous step) in conjuction with your molecule, see 6.2 Using molecular graphics: with: quanta, sybyl, O, mage, insightII.

The files:

  • example_grid.plt2 has been converted for use with sybyl.
  • example_grid_line.usr has been converted for use with InsightII.
  • example_grid.obo has been converted for use with O.
  • example_grid.kin has been converted for use with mage - and then combined with 1grm_single.kin (which is the output of prekin on 1grm_single.pdb) to produce final kinemage file example_grid_edit.kin.

*We will now use the files example_grid.qpt and stick.qpt with the program qplot to produce a colour postscript picture.
jura> qplot®           
 This is program qplot which reads hydra/quanta plot files
   and produces postscript output
 Version H2alpha1
 (c) 1996 Oliver Smart & Birkbeck College, All rights reserved.
 Program linked at Mon Feb 26 16:27:28 GMT 1996  
 Last modified .f files: 
       10587 Feb 26 16:27 qplot.f        
       24389 Feb 26 16:22 machine_dep.f  
       26903 Feb 26 16:21 sphqpt.f       
 What level of questions/options do you want to be used?
   Options:-  expert (E) or normal <normal>: ® # use default 
 Please enter input binary hydra/quanta plot (old) filename
 defaults <example_grid.qpt> ext:<.qpt> (abort by EXIT or ^D) : 
 Have read a total of  2095 records so far
 Do you want to read another input file? (y/n) <n>: # want 2nd file 
 Please enter input next binary hydra/quanta plot (old) filename
 defaults <input.qpt> ext:<.qpt> (abort by EXIT or ^D) : stick.qpt®
 Have read a total of  2667 records so far
 Do you want to read another input file? (y/n) <n>: ® # use default 

 Please enter output postscript file (new) filename
 defaults <stick.ps> ext:<.ps> (abort by EXIT or ^D) : colour® # outpt file colour.ps 
 Do you wish to change the view with a rotation? (y/n) <no>: ® # use default 
 Do you want colour postscript output? (y/n) <n>: 
 Do you want a black or white background? (b/w) <w>: ® # use default 
 Can either preserve default quanta colours
   or map all non-HOLE objects to cyan? 
   Preserve quanta colours(P) or map to magenta? <map>: ® # use default 
 Do you want a Normal or Stereo picture? (n/s) <normal>:  # want stereo 

STOP FORTRAN STOP qplot normal successful completion. statement executed
jura>

This results in a file colour.ps which I have converted to a gif using xpsview, snapshot and xv on a Silicon Graphics:
Th hole surface is coloured so that parts of the channel whose pore radius is below 1.15 Å - which is the minimum radius to accommodate a water molecule - are red. Where the pore radius is above 2.3 Å - sufficient to fit two water molecules in side by side the surface is blue. The intermediate zone with a pore radius sufficient to fit just one water molecule will be displayed in green. In this case the hole surface has no red parts showing that a water molecule can fit through the channel. Only the ends of the channel have blue surface showing that the Arseniev gramicidin structure is consistent with the single file water picture of gramicidin.


Navigation:
Back to top of this page
Back to contents
Back to previous section 8.0 Using HOLE to predict conductance properties of ion channels
On to next section 10.0 Future Developments and Applications to date

 <<Previous Section  Hole Doc. Index^  HOLE home  OSS home  comments?  Next Section>>