The
MCM group collaborates with the Scientific Databases and Visualization
group on the ELSA (Elektronischer Stoffwechsel Atlas) project. Our main
aim is to incorporate information about macromolecular
three-dimensional structures into the ELSA database analysis system in
such a way that the structures can be easily visualized and how they
function understood by a biologist without extensive training in
structural biology.
Structural information about enzymes and
their ligands - substrates, products, cofactors, protein binding
partners etc - is essential to a full understanding of the biochemical
pathways of organisms, and to their exploitation for protein
engineering or drug design purposes. A goal of this project is to
derive structural and functional information for the proteins in
Mycoplasma pneumoniae, the model organism for the ELSA project and one
of the causes of pneumonia. Visualization tools are being developed for
viewing protein structures and identifying their functional sites while
exploring biochemical pathways within the ELSA system as well as
independently. Going beyond the visualization of single structures, we
aim to develop procedures for visualization of reaction mechanisms. As
a first step, animations will be generated for selected enzymatic
reactions in the glycolytic pathway of Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
