DivScore: A Plugin for PyMOL


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Introduction

The DivScore package is intended to be used with AMBER and DivCon for preprocessing biological structures (primarily proteins and small molecules) quick geometry optimization, charge calculation, creating job scripts and streamlining workflow within the PyMOL environment. This package was developed to aid my research and hence works within the confines of assumptions that were necessary for streamlining my workflow. However for those who have access to the AMBER and DivCon, it could potentially be useful since it combines the power of PyMOL with that of AMBER for molecular simulation and DivCon for Quantum Mechanics calculations on large biomolecular systems. An example of the capability of DivScore is that, it can perform a quick minimization of a ligand in the active site of a protein based on the AMBER force field and upload the resulting coordinates into PyMOL for visualization. More examples of things one could do will follow in the examples sections.
 

Features

The current version of DivScore can:

1.) Protonate proteins and small molecules*
2.) Minimize small molecules/Ligands/Drugs*
3.) Minimize proteins, ligands in complexes*
4.) Calculate charges on small molecules**
5.) Alter Residue description in the Proteins
6.) Setup DivCon Input Files
7.) Setup job scripts for doing Energy Minimization, MD simulation, and QM DivCon runs.
8.) Other features:

      1. load multiple files according to a pattern         [Usage: mload inh*.pdb]
   2. get charge on a fragment of a protein              [Usage: fchg OBJECT]
   3. calculate surface area of a fragment of a molecule [Usage: sasa OBJECT]
   4. calculate surface area burial in complexation      [Usage: dasa OBJECT]
   5. display sequence of a protein or a fragment        [Usage: gsq OBJECT]
9.) DivScore enables PyMOL to recognize the following UNIX commands:
    1. cp     [Usage: cp path/file1 path/file2]
    2. cat    [Usage: cat path/filename]
    3. head   [Usage: head path/filename]
    4. rm     [Usage: rm path/filename]
    5. mkdir  [Usage: mkdir directory name]
    6. shc    [Usage: shc "any shell command" use with caution]
    7. mv     [Usage: mv path/file1 path/file2]
* Needs AMBER; ** Needs DivCon
 

Download

DivScore for PyMOL can be downloaded from this site.

Installation

Following download please do as follows:

        1) copy the file ramm.tar.gz to your pymol distribution home (PYMOL_HOME) as:
                    % cp ramm.tar.gz $PYMOL_HOME/pymol/modules/pmg_tk/startup/
        2) gunzip and untar the distribution:
                    % tar xzvf ramm.tar.gz  OR gunzip ramm.tar.gz ; tar xvf ramm.tar

You will see a directory ramm that will be created.  Then launch PyMOL. DivScore will ask you a few questions to initialize its path. You have to provide the path for your AMBER distribution and DivCon distribution. DivScore will store the initialization information for future use. Now you are good to go. In case of an unsuccessful installation feel free to contact me 

o For protonating small molecules BABEL is needed. Open source babel version can be obtained from OpenEye. Here is a compiled copy for RH7. For protonate feature of DivScore plugin to function babel should reside in the $HOME/bin/ directory.  
o For disulfide linking the program Disulphide (written by Andrew Wollacott) is needed. For crosslinking feature of DivScore plugin to function Disulphide should reside in the $HOME/bin/ directory.  
o For small molecules the program rename is needed and can be downloaded for RH7 from here. This program should reside in the $HOME/bin/ directory.
o An older version of PyMOL for which this plugin was originally created can also be found here.
 

Note

DivScore is being constantly developed according to my needs in research. Hence it is not a software program but more like a plugin of Python scripts that can be used from within PyMOL. One consistent feature of  DivScore is that it will always be a plugin and hence can be used with PyMOL without having to change anything or recompiling PyMOL (provided PyMOL keeps supporting its own API). Currently it needs other programs like AMBER and DivCon to be fully functional. Without these programs it has limited functionality but more features are being worked on.  I will update this webpage with new features that have been added and tested (false promise). The latest version will always be found on this website.
 

Examples

Request it