BALBES - Automatic Molecular Replacement Pipeline

Please cite the following paper in any publication arising from use of BALBES

F.Long, A.Vagin, P.Young and G.N.Murshudov "BALBES: a Molecular Replacement Pipeline " Acta Cryst. D64 125-132(2008)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The following is a list of questions users asked about BALBES. Please also email Fei Long any comments, questions and suggestions. Thank you.

Contents:

• Can BALBES be used to solve a complex of several proteins?
• What is the format for an input sequence file of a complex of several proteins?
• Could you explain the table of homologous models output by BALBES?
• Any constraints for input structural factor files?
• Where do I get the latest version of BALBES?
• How do I update BALBES database to the latest version?
• What does it means for the dissemination level mean on BALBES web-server?
• Further Notes On How BALBES works
• References and Links

Introduction

BALBES is an automated software suite for structure solutions using protein X-ray crystallographic data. Molecular Replacement(MR) is core scientific method. It is called a MR pipeline because it integrates all components, necessary for finding a solution structure by MR, into one system. The system is automated so that a user needs only to provide a sequence file and a X-ray data file. After that BALBES will perform jobs such as data checking, homologous searching using its internal database to generate a variety of template models, and selecting different algorithms to do MR and refinement on those models and their combinations.

BALBES contains three major parts:

• An specifically tailored internal database for searching homologous models
• Scientific programs, such as MOLREP and REFMAC, for MR and refinement and other jobs
• A manager system written in PYTHON scripts that controls process flow and selects algorithms