You have a good point with your script remark, but the part where you mention the other means to create a ZIG-ZAG-ZIG sheet from a ZAG-ZAG-ZIG sheet is unfounded.
Please show me an example where such a configuration (ZAG-ZAG-ZIG) was turned into ZIG-ZAG-ZIG without using rebuild and without extraordinary effort in movements and time, I'd like to learn how to do that.
Now I understand the problem better. I used the cut tool to create a sheet with sidechains facing A-B-B-A. Tweak was able to get the sidechains back on the right sides, but the backbone then had a bent zag-zag shape. I was unable to straighten it using any of the methods mentioned above (tweak, rebuild with and without bands, wiggle with strength 10 bands on ends and/or sidechains). The only way I found to fix it was to cut again between the two offending segments and rotate half the sheet with the move tool (which was how I created the problem in the first place). After rejoining, tweak alone was still unable to make it nicely straight; that required some rebuild followed by tweak.
I was surprised that rebuild could not find a good solution, given that the sheet was cut out and completely free to move (no endpoints to match up to). Either tweak or rebuild needs to be changed to recognize a zag-zag problem and correct it.
I applaud you for your explanation and effort Susume ! Thank you.
So if the only way you get to a ABBA in the first place is if you use cut-points, then the solution would be to just not put it like that. It Makes sense because ABBA is completely unnatural. It would be like cutting your arm off mid way flipping it around putting it back on then expecting it to still bend and function the right way. Your not gonna have a good time.
You miss the point. Susume did that to test the hypothesis that you could, as you incorrectly stated, use tweak to get any shape into a straight zig-zag. She proved that that does not (always) work. In some of the models we work with, a zag-zag-zig structure may appear, it is then needed to run rebuild to get it right. My point is that rebuild should always search for a zig-zag-zig solution rather than present us with less useful shapes which may still contain zag-zag-zig and may still be bent to a useless point. If you have to run rebuild anyway, you may as well go for the straight shape.
I posted a suggestion. It is up to the devs to see if that makes sense and put it into practice or not.
Ah! I wish I had come back to this thread sooner. A picture would have been great! You're talking about flipped segments in sheets? (cis bonds) I've thought a lot about these.
I'm surprised you're having trouble with this…they occur with very low probability and disappear in the very next rebuild. They're very hard to make on purpose. I've literally spent days trying to hand-flip glycines with rebuild in Snow Flea. My Glycine Flipper script is a complete failure. I vote no to eliminating flips from rebuild completely.
Tweak absolutely does not affect cis bonds in any way, only rebuild. And, that twist doesn't just vanish, it has to go somewhere. It might move to a u-turn, or it might turn into a twist along the sheet, ruining it.
These flips do happen in nature and usually for a good reason. The picture above is from a CASP refinement, so presumably is close to the native. Why would we want a flip? If it's in a sheet, it's probably part of a beta bulge.
A beta bulge forces the sheet to bend (not in the thin bendy direction, but in the thick direction). We've seen these a lot in puzzles where the sheet has to wrap around something, but not like in a barrel. If you have a proline in the middle of a sheets, it's probably there for this express purpose (prolines are 3x as likely to have a flip).
You have a nice functional protein, but then there's a mutation and you have an extra segment. If you just have a flat sheet, everything after the insertion is now upside down, with your 'phobes and 'phillics swapped. Better to just include an extra twist.
A flip might be the best way to bury a big 'phobe or unbury a big 'phillic.
Certain xxx-pro beta hairpins (a tight turn connecting to sheets) ALWAYS have a flip. Without it, a sheet would be upside-down!
More on rebuilding in structure mode: I say it doesn't work because it just SITS there. I don't get any rebuilds at all. I either have to use the scissors tool and rebuild it while free floating, or I have to rebuild it as loop at least once, then set it back to sheet and rebuild the (bent) sheet. It's very frustrating to have 100% of rebuilds rejected in structure mode.
As an aside, banding also makes the rejection rate go WAY up…and the only way to get a cis bond with rebuild on purpose is…banding.
I can't preview this post so I hope it all turns out.
My picture is missing so here it is:
Thanks for the info brow! My picture is different from yours, but I think they're two forms of the same thing. Tweak put the sidechains back to alternating sides (ABAB) but now there are 2 right turns in a row, at either end of the blue asparagine. I guess that matches your description of a beta bulge. I ran rebuild on this for about 10 minutes, which found roughly 350 positions. None of the poses had the clear right-turn-left-turn shape I was looking for. Most had two right turns in a row. About 5% were straight between the asparagine and tyrosine so I couldn't tell for sure if they had switched to right-left or not. Four poses had a twist in them (like your picture) and the sidechains back on sides ABBA. Maybe I'd have gotten a different assortment if I had a different sequence of aas. Seems like there are two sides to this problem: when you have a zag-zag you don't want, it's hard to get rid of, and when you want to add one (or move one along the backbone I guess), it's hard to create.
Interesting to learn that these things occur in nature and are sometimes needed in a protein. I'd still like a way to get rid of them though.
zag-zag (two right turns) in a sheet
I recently posted a recipe called makehelix (http://fold.it/portal/recipe/42111) that uses bands to make a variety of helix types. It can also make ideal beta-sheets. Perhaps it can solve some of your problems.
If you think of ways to improve makehelix, please e-mail me your suggestions or adapt the code as you see fit. Thanks!