Normal Mode Wizard
Normal Mode Wizard (NMWiz) is for visual comparative analysis of normal mode data. Normal modes may come from NMWiz can be used for: Some examples prepared using NMWiz are shown below:

ANM modes for p38 MAPK

ANM vs. PCA modes for p38

p38 network model

How to use NMWiz

Normal mode data can be fed into NMWiz in two ways:
  1. NMD files: NMWiz can read .nmd files (Load NMD file) which can be generated using ProDy or obtained from the ANM server. Alternatively, one can prepare an NMD file using a simple text editor. See NMD format for details.
  2. VMD recognized formats: NMWiz can retrieve normal mode data from molecules loaded in VMD, so it supports all file formats that are supported by VMD. After reading data files, click From Molecule. See Molfile Plugin documentation for supported formats.
NMWiz Main Window
NMWiz GUI
From Molecule
Mobility Plot
ProDy Interface
Structure Comparison
NMWiz can also be used to generate data: For each dataset loaded in NMWiz a series of buttons will appear in the main window. GUI button recovers the GUI for a dataset when it is closed. Remove completely removes the dataset from the memory. Save writes the data on disk in NMD format.

Tips
To get instant help click Help.

NMWiz GUI

A NMWiz GUI is generated for each dataset loaded into NMWiz. These interfaces are independent of each other, hence allow for comparison of different data sets.

NMWiz GUI allows for visualizing, animating, and plotting modes. Arrow size, animation length, graphics quality etc. can be adjusted using Option panels after they are switched on.

These panels are hidden from user at startup.

Active Mode and Color

The top panel enables choosing the active mode and color. When the active mode is changed, previously drawn mode arrows will be undisplayed. This behavior and other graphics options can be changed from the "Arrow Graphics Option" panel.

Tips
When visualizing a large system, keep the resolution low while making adjustments for a more responsive experience.
If the arrow graphics are too crowded, draw arrows for a subset of residues that are evenly spaced, e.g. try the selection string residue % 4 == 0, which will draw an arrow for every fourth residue.

From Molecule

This interface can be used retrieve data from a molecule which contains normal modes as frames. In the following examples mode data are provided in Gromacs TRR or PDB formats: When retrieving data from a large molecular system, you can choose to get data for select atoms, e.g. name CA and protein will retrieve parts of normal modes matching carbon alpha atoms.

Mobility Plots

Square-fluctuations for the active normal mode can be plotted by clicking on the Plot button. Plots will be generated using MultiPlot plugin.

Tip: Clicking on the plot will label and highlight the residue (or atom) in the VMD display.

ProDy Interface

ProDy interface allows users to submit ANM, GNM, and PCA/EDA calculations for proteins loaded in VMD. User needs to download and install ProDy v0.9 or later.

ProDy interface lists molecules available for calculations. If all molecules loaded in VMD are not displayed, click Update. ANM and GNM calculations require a coordinate set. PCA calculations require multiple coordinate sets. If coordinate sets are aligned, this can be specified and ProDy calculations will take shorter to complete. Note that you can perform atomistic calculations by changing the atom selection. If you perform atomistic ANM or GNM calculations adjust the cutoff distance parameter accordingly. Upon completion of the calculations, NMWiz automatically loads the results.

ProDy allows for extending a coarse grained ANM, GNM, or PCA model to all or backbone atoms of the residue. This option does not affect the calculations, but can be used to improve visualization and animations. Depending on the selected option, the resulting NMD file will contain backbone or all atoms of the protein, which allows for using protein representation that requires secondary structure calcualtion from backbone atoms, such as NewCartoon.

Structure Comparison

NMWiz can be used to generate deformation vector arrows for a pair related molecules or a pair of frames loaded for the same molecule.

This interface lists molecules available for comparison. If all molecules loaded in VMD are not displayed, click Update. User needs to make a selections for both molecules that will result in selecting the same number of atoms. NMWiz will generate arrows between atoms in these selections.

NMD format

NMD files (extension .nmd) are plain text files that contain at least normal mode and coordinate data. PCA, EDA, NMA, ANM, or GNM data can be stored in NMD files. Recognized data fields are listed below, those required are emphasized.

coordinates - Coordinates must be provided in one line as a list of decimal numbers. Number of atoms in the system is deduced from size of this data line.
mode - Normal mode array. Each normal mode array must be provided in one line as a list of decimal numbers. Mode array may be preceded by mode index and mode length (square root of variance or inverse frequency).
title - A title for the dataset.
names - Atom names. Default is "CA" for all atoms.
resnames: Residue names. Default value is "GLY".
chainids: Chain identifiers. Default value is "A".
resids: Residue numbers. If this data line if not found, residue numbers are started from 1 and incremented by one for each atom.
betas: Beta factors. Default value is 0 (zero). B-factors are used to color the protein representation.

Note that all data types must be listed in a single line. The size of data lines must match the number of atoms in the system (the size of coordinates line).

NMD file example (all lines are truncated):

title 1p38_anm
names CA CA CA ...
resnames GLU ARG PRO ...
chids A A A ...
resnums 4 5 6 ...
betas 69.99 59.83 47.29 ...
coordinates 27.552 4.354 23.629 24.179 4.807 21.907 ...
mode 1 2.37 0.039 0.009 0.058 0.038 -0.011 0.052 ...
mode 2 1.73 -0.045 -0.096 -0.009 -0.040 -0.076 -0.010 ...
mode 3 1.70 0.007 -0.044 0.080 0.015 -0.037 0.062 0.012 ...

The complete file can be downloaded from here: p38_MAPK_1p38_anm.zip

NMWiz commands

NMWiz commands allows user to get and set coordinate and mode arrays and adding new modes. This features can be used to generate linear combinations of modes and adding them to the dataset. See the example at the end: The following top level commands are available:

nmwiz list   lists all existing normal mode dataset handles
nmwiz load   loads a dataset in NMD format
nmwiz main   shows NMWiz main window

You can get a handle of a dataset as follows:
set nmdhandle [nmwiz load p38_MAPK_1p38_anm.nmd]
Or you can use the list command:
set nmdhandle [lindex [nmwiz list] 0]
This handle can be used with the following commands:

$nmdhandle numatoms   get number of atoms
$nmdhandle getcoords   get a list of all existing normal mode dataset handles
$nmdhandle setcoords array   set molecule coordinates
$nmdhandle nummodes   get number of modes
$nmdhandle getmode index   get mode array
$nmdhandle setmode index array   set mode array
$nmdhandle getlen index   get length of mode
$nmdhandle setlen index length   set length of mode
$nmdhandle addmode array   add new mode

Combining modes:

The following examples shows how to combine two modes linearly after scaling them by their lengths:
set nmdhandle [lindex [nmwiz list] end]
set m1 [$nmdhandle getmode 1]
set l1 [$nmdhandle getlen 1]
set m2 [$nmdhandle getmode 2]
set l2 [$nmdhandle getlen 2]
$nmdhandle addmode [vecadd [vecscale $l1 $m1] [vecscale $l2 $m2]]

Inverting a mode:

The following examples shows how to invert a mode:
set nmdhandle [lindex [nmwiz list] end]
set m1 [$nmdhandle getmode 1]
$nmdhandle setmode 1 [vecinvert $m1]

Change coordinates:

The following examples shows how to change molecule coordinates:
set nmdhandle [lindex [nmwiz list] end]
set zeros [vecscale 0 [$nmdhandle getcoords]]
$nmdhandle setcoords $zeros

Author

Ahmet Bakan

Citation: Bakan A, Meireles LM, Bahar I ProDy: Protein Dynamics Inferred from Theory and Experiments Bioinformatics 2011 27(11):1575-1577.