[3dem] cryo-EM structure of a DNA-origami object

[Gary Battle]

  In the field of nanotechnology, scientists have developed a technique 
to construct nano-scale 3D objects out of DNA. This technique, called 3D 
DNA-origami, has been used to design and construct a record-breaking DNA 
object that contains an entire genome and is almost twice the size of a 
prokaryotic ribosome.

Read the full story at: http://bit.ly/JRxHvT

The DNA-origami models contain almost 300,000 atoms spread out over 164 
individual DNA strands and had to be split over 5 separate PDB entries. 
It is the first structure deposited in the PDB that contains an entire 
genome.

“The DNA-origami object presented a number of unique challenges,” said 
Matthew Conroy, member of the annotation team at PDBe. “With that in 
mind, we are very pleased that we were able to complete curation of this 
mammoth structure within three days. It demonstrates how we must strive 
to keep pace with the increasing number, size and complexity of 
structures deposited with us."

The fully curated, record-breaking structure is freely available in the 
EMDB (http://pdbe.org/emd-2210) and the fitted models can be explored in 
the PDB (http://pdbe.org/2ymf, http://pdbe.org/2ymg, 
http://pdbe.org/2ymh, http://pdbe.org/2ymi, and http://pdbe.org/2ymr). 
For a closer, interactive look at the cryo-EM map together with the 
fitted models, follow this link: 
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/emdb-srv/atlas/2210_openastexviewer.html

Gary Battle

-- 
Gary Battle
Outreach Coordinator

Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe)
EMBL-EBI
Wellcome Trust Genome Campus
Hinxton, Cambridge
CB10 1SD

Tel: 01223 49-4654
email: battle at ebi.ac.uk

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