Rendering protein structures inside cells at the atomic level with Unreal Engine

Abstract

While the recent development of cryogenic electron tomography (CryoET) makes it possible to identify various macromolecules inside cells and determine their structure at near-atomic resolution, it remains challenging to visualize the complex cellular environment at the atomic level. One of the main hurdles in cell visualization is to render the millions of molecules in real time computationally. Here, using a video game engine, we demonstrate the capability of rendering massive biological macromolecules at the atomic level within their native environment. To facilitate the visualization, we also provide tools that help the interactive navigation inside the cells, as well as software that converts protein structures identified using CryoET to a scene that can be explored with the game engine. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=100 SRC="FIGDIR/small/570879v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (87K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e5a2feorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@12fe835org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@3629a1org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e70922_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG