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MoFlow: visualizing conformational changes in molecules as molecular flow improves understanding.

Authors :
Dabdoub SM
Rumpf RW
Shindhelm AD
Ray WC
Source :
BMC proceedings [BMC Proc] 2015 Aug 13; Vol. 9 (Suppl 6 Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Biological Data), pp. S5. Date of Electronic Publication: 2015 Aug 13 (Print Publication: 2015).
Publication Year :
2015

Abstract

Background: Current visualizations of molecular motion use a Timeline-analogous representation that conveys "first the molecule was shaped like this, then like this...". This scheme is orthogonal to the Pathline-like human understanding of motion "this part of the molecule moved from here to here along this path". We present MoFlow, a system for visualizing molecular motion using a Pathline-analogous representation.<br />Results: The MoFlow system produces high-quality renderings of molecular motion as atom pathlines, as well as interactive WebGL visualizations, and 3D printable models. In a preliminary user study, MoFlow representations are shown to be superior to canonical representations for conveying molecular motion.<br />Conclusions: Pathline-based representations of molecular motion are more easily understood than timeline representations. Pathline representations provide other advantages because they represent motion directly, rather than representing structure with inferred motion.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1753-6561
Volume :
9
Issue :
Suppl 6 Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Biological Data
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
BMC proceedings
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
26361501
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1186/1753-6561-9-S6-S5