Open AccessChallenges and surprises that arise with nucleic acids during model building and refinement
Author(s) -
Scott William G.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section d
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1399-0047
DOI - 10.1107/s0907444912001084
Subject(s) - nucleic acid , phaser , nucleic acid structure , process (computing) , refining (metallurgy) , computer science , model building , rna , computational biology , chemistry , biology , physics , biochemistry , programming language , quantum mechanics , optics , gene
The process of building and refining crystal structures of nucleic acids, although similar to that for proteins, has some peculiarities that give rise to both various complications and various benefits. Although conventional isomorphous replacement phasing techniques are typically used to generate an experimental electron‐density map for the purposes of determining novel nucleic acid structures, it is also possible to couple the phasing and model‐building steps to permit the solution of complex and novel RNA three‐dimensional structures without the need for conventional heavy‐atom phasing approaches.