Xtricorder: A likelihood-enhanced self-rotation function and application to a machine-learning enhanced Matthews prediction of asymmetric unit copy number

Analysis of crystallographic diffraction data before phasing gives the crystallographer a first look at the nature of the problem and the context in which the structure determination will be performed. We here report the development of Xtricorder, an application that targets analysis of crystallographic data specifically for likelihood-based phasing. As well as porting many of the analyses previously available but relatively inaccessible in our Phaser codebase, Xtricorder offers a likelihood-enhanced self-rotation function. A novel and intuitive graphical representation of the self-rotation function presents the results for user inspection, and has the added advantage that, in an adapted form, is appropriate for training a convolutional neural network to enhance the standard Matthews analysis and more accurately predict the number of copies in the asymmetric unit. We investigate the usefulness of the likelihood-enhanced self-rotation function in first look analyses, exploring the circumstances under which the self-rotation function results are useful, and discuss the application to AI-generated structure prediction. Synopsis Xtricorder is a new tool for analysing crystallographic data prior to phasing, featuring a likelihood-enhanced self-rotation function and graphical output that aids both user interpretation and machine learning-based prediction of asymmetric unit content.