Biologically Based Visualization of Cartoonized Protein Ribbon

摘要

Visualization of protein topology, which is mainly determined by the backbone, presents basic information for the protein structure and functions. This paper presents an efficient approach to visualizing cartoonized protein ribbon. Differential geometry methods and biological properties of proteins are combined to model the polypeptides/backbone and the moving frame along the 3D trajectory of the protein backbone. The free-form curve modeling technique is conventionally used in representing the central trajectory of proteins. However, such curve modeling may produce non-smooth Frenet frames along the trajectory that lead to twisting of the protein geometry. In this proposed method, we intensively use biological properties of proteins including the information of atoms Cα and the amide planes to allow more natural visualization for protein ribbons. Curve interpolation, frame blending, and ribbon sweeping of the cartoonized protein backbone are then developed and implemented on Windows-PC platform.