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NetWheels: A web application to create high quality peptide helical wheel and net projections.

Alan Ribeiro MóliD, Mariana S. CastroiD, Wagner FontesiD

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Abstract

Helices are one of the most common secondary structures found in peptides and proteins. The wheel and net projections have been proposed to represent in two dimensions the tridimensional helical structures and facilitate the observation of their properties, especially in terms of residues polarity and intramolecular bonding. Nevertheless, there are few software options to create these projections. We have developed a web-based application that has several futures to create, customize and export these projections and is freely available at http://lbqp.unb.br/NetWheels.

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In-depth summary

✦ Multi-agent verified full-text synthesis

Claude Opus 5.5 · max effort · 8 Nov 2026 · from the full text of version 1 (14 Sept 2018) · CC BY 4.0

NetWheels, an R/shiny web application, draws customizable peptide helical wheel and net projections, accommodates non-α helix geometries, and exports publication-quality images plus reloadable parameter sets.

Prior helical wheel software consists of unpublished simple web pages or published programs that are embedded in larger bioinformatics packages or more than two decades old, and these offer little control over residue polygons, colours, patterns, or sizes for publication figures; the single net-projection program the authors found is not online. NetWheels unifies both projection types in one open-source, customizable web tool with high-quality image export.

Key results

  1. ShownOne browser application produces both Schiffer-Edmundson helical wheel and net projections of a peptide, with the drawing parameters for each projection type set through grouped tabs.

    The Fig. 1 screenshot shows the parameter tabs together with a net projection (A) and a wheel projection (B) of the same peptide; the app and its source code are stated to be freely available at http://lbqp.unb.br/NetWheels. · Abstract; Results and Discussion; Figure legends

  2. ClaimedResidue rendering is organized by physicochemical class, with every class styled independently and predefined style presets available for users who do not need detailed customization.

    Four classes (basic, acidic, uncharged polar, nonpolar) plus an optional unknown class; per-class options cover polygon type, fill colour or pattern, border, label position, font size, and amino acid code style. · Results and Discussion

  3. ClaimedProjection settings and figures are portable: the complete parameter set behind a projection can be exported and reloaded for later editing, and images can be saved in several formats and resolutions for documents and presentations.

    The Results state that reloading exported parameters avoids resetting options by hand and that multi-format, multi-resolution export avoids quality loss; the specific image formats, resolutions, and structure of the exported parameter set are not listed. · Results and Discussion

  4. ClaimedProjection geometry is not limited to the α-helix: helix periodicity settings are editable so that three-ten and π helices can also be drawn.

    The α-helix values (18-residue period, 3.6 residues per turn) can be changed according to the Results; no worked example of a non-α helix projection is described. · Introduction; Results and Discussion

Methods, data and reproducibility

Wheel and net projections are rendered with R's plotting engine, and a browser-based interface built with the shiny package (extended by shinyjs) exposes the plotting parameters through tabbed panels, keeping development and maintenance almost entirely in R.

  • Single unnamed example peptide (sequence not reported) rendered as both a net and a wheel projection in the application screenshot (Fig. 1)
Methods & tools
NetWheels (this work; R/shiny web application), R programming language and plotting engine, shiny (R package used to build the web interface), shinyjs (R package extending shiny)
Code
http://lbqp.unb.br/NetWheels
Software & environment
Built on R's plotting engine with the shiny and shinyjs packages; no R or package version numbers, container, or dependency list is reported.
Reproducibility gaps
Code is offered only via the application's own web address; although the tool is described as open source, no licence, version-controlled repository, archived release, or example input or parameter files are specified.
Limitations (2)
  • No benchmarking or validation is reported: there is no feature or output comparison with the earlier wheel tools the Introduction cites, no user evaluation, and only one illustrative peptide, so the advantages in quality and usability are asserted rather than demonstrated. · noted in this summary
  • Residue properties are shown only through four categorical classes (plus an unknown class); no quantitative hydrophobicity scale or hydrophobic moment is reported, and the text does not say whether or how net projections draw intramolecular bonds, so analytical use is unclear. · noted in this summary

Who should read:Read this if you need customizable, publication-ready helical wheel or net projections of peptides (including non-α helices) from a free web tool without writing plotting code.

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