X3DBio1: a visual analysis tool for biomolecular structure exploration

Abstract

Protein tertiary structure analysis provides valuable information on their biochemical functions. The structure-to-function relationship can be directly addressed through three dimensional (3D) biomolecular structure exploration and comparison. We present X3DBio1, a visual analysis tool for 3D biomolecular structure exploration, which allows for easy visual analysis of 2D intra-molecular contact map and 3D density exploration for protein, DNA, and RNA structures. A case study is also presented in this paper to illustrate the utility of the tool. X3DBio1 is open source and freely downloadable. We expect this tool can be applied to solve a variety of biological problems.