Whaddaya Know: A Guide to Uncertainty and Subjectivity in Structural Biology

Whaddaya Know: A Guide to Uncertainty and Subjectivity in Structural Biology. Mackay, J., Landsberg, M., Whitten, A., & Bond, C. Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 42(2):155-167, 2017.
doi abstract bibtex

The methods of structural biology, while powerful, are technically complex. Although the Protein Data Bank (PDB) provides a repository that allows anyone to download any structure, many users would not appreciate the caveats that should be considered when examining a structure. Here, we describe several key uncertainties associated with the application of X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, single-particle electron microscopy (SPEM), and small-angle scattering (SAS) to biological macromolecules. The take-home message is that structures are not absolute truths – they are models that fit the experimental data and therefore have uncertainty and subjectivity associated with them. These uncertainties must be appreciated – careful reading of the associated paper, and any validation report provided by the structure database, is highly recommended.

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 pages = {155-167},
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 abstract = {The methods of structural biology, while powerful, are technically complex. Although the Protein Data Bank (PDB) provides a repository that allows anyone to download any structure, many users would not appreciate the caveats that should be considered when examining a structure. Here, we describe several key uncertainties associated with the application of X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, single-particle electron microscopy (SPEM), and small-angle scattering (SAS) to biological macromolecules. The take-home message is that structures are not absolute truths – they are models that fit the experimental data and therefore have uncertainty and subjectivity associated with them. These uncertainties must be appreciated – careful reading of the associated paper, and any validation report provided by the structure database, is highly recommended.},
 bibtype = {article},
 author = {Mackay, J.P. and Landsberg, M.J. and Whitten, A.E. and Bond, C.S.},
 doi = {10.1016/j.tibs.2016.11.002},
 journal = {Trends in Biochemical Sciences},
 number = {2}
}

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