Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Feb 20;123(4):435-450.
doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2024.01.021. Epub 2024 Jan 23.

Predictive modeling and cryo-EM: A synergistic approach to modeling macromolecular structure

Michael R Corum  1 , Harikanth Venkannagari  1 , Corey F Hryc  1 , Matthew L Baker  2
Affiliations
Review

Predictive modeling and cryo-EM: A synergistic approach to modeling macromolecular structure

Michael R Corum et al. Biophys J. .

Abstract

Over the last 15 years, structural biology has seen unprecedented development and improvement in two areas: electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) and predictive modeling. Once relegated to low resolutions, single-particle cryo-EM is now capable of achieving near-atomic resolutions of a wide variety of macromolecular complexes. Ushered in by AlphaFold, machine learning has powered the current generation of predictive modeling tools, which can accurately and reliably predict models for proteins and some complexes directly from the sequence alone. Although they offer new opportunities individually, there is an inherent synergy between these techniques, allowing for the construction of large, complex macromolecular models. Here, we give a brief overview of these approaches in addition to illustrating works that combine these techniques for model building. These examples provide insight into model building, assessment, and limitations when integrating predictive modeling with cryo-EM density maps. Together, these approaches offer the potential to greatly accelerate the generation of macromolecular structural insights, particularly when coupled with experimental data.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests The authors have no competing interests to declare.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Carugo O., Djinović-Carugo K. Structural biology: A golden era. PLoS Biol. 2023;21 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Curry S. Structural Biology: A Century-long Journey into an Unseen World. Interdiscipl. Sci. Rev. 2015;40:308–328. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kühlbrandt W. The resolution revolution. Science. 2014;343:1443–1444. - PubMed
    1. Bai X.c., McMullan G., Scheres S.H.W. How cryo-EM is revolutionizing structural biology. Trends Biochem. Sci. 2015;40:49–57. - PubMed
    1. Tan Y.Z., Carragher B. Seeing Atoms: Single-Particle Cryo-EM Breaks the Atomic Barrier. Mol. Cell. 2020;80:938–939. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources