New developments in model building withBuccaneer
Kevin D. Cowtan · Acta Crystallographica Section A Foundations of Crystallography · 2009
The 'Buccaneer' software for automated protein model building provides an effective tool for building an initial protein model into an experimentally phased electron density map.While it works at higher resolutions, it has been particularly useful in the lower resolution range, e.g. from 2.5A to 3.5A, when good phases are available [1].The effectiveness of the procedure across a range of resolutions depends on the use of a problem-specific search function for locating likely alpha-carbon positions, where the search function is determined from a standard library structure and tailored to the resolution and data quality of the problem at hand.Some of the same methods have been implemented in the 'Coot' graphics software to allow interactive location of secondary structure features.More recently, the focus of this work has shifted to the rebuilding of molecular replacement models.Initial results of this work will be presented.The integration of 'Buccaneer' into automation pipelines has also involved the development of a new 'classical' density modification program, 'Parrot'.