POV-Ray is the program used to create The Digital Museum of Modern Art. It can be downloaded free from the Internet, and artists have used it to create fantasy kingdoms and unique landscapes, among other things. Biochemists and molecular biologists have adopted the program as well.

Shown above is one depiction of the solution structure of the Cdc13 DNA-binding domain in complex with telomeric DNA (only Cdc13 DNA-binding domain shown here).

 

The essential Cdc13 protein in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a single-stranded telomeric DNA-binding protein required for chromosome end protection and telomere replication.

The structure reveals the use of a large OB fold augmented by an unusually large loop for DNA recognition. This OB fold is structurally similar to OB folds found in ciliated protozoan telomere end-binding protein, although no sequence similarity is apparent between them [emphasis supplied]. The common usage of an OB fold for telomeric DNA interaction demonstrates conservation of end-protection mechanisms among eukaryotes." Rachel M. Mitton-Fry and Deborah S. Wuttke, et al. "Conserved Structure for Single-Stranded Telomeric DNA Recognition. Science. April 15, 2002: 145-147.

  

The structure, determined by NMR spectroscopy, was run through the POV-Ray program to create a 3D image, illustrated here rotating on the y-axis. The first half of the movie shows the main structural features of the protein, while the second highlights individual amino acid side chains which are responsible for DNA binding.

But what is a protein without music? in this short movie, the protein is accompanied by music from Dialtones [a Telesymphony]. Dialtones was presented in two consecutive concerts in September, 2001, as a co-production of Golan Levin and the Ars Electronica Festival, and in seventeen performances in May / June 2002 at the Swiss National Exposition.

As described by its creators: "Dialtones is a large-scale concert performance whose sounds are wholly produced through the carefully choreographed dialing and ringing of the audience's own mobile phones. . . In an appropriate acoustic environment, the sporadic triggering of calls to mobile phones can evoke the placid chirps and trills of crickets, cicadas, frogs and birds."

But it also works well with protein structures. Learn more here, at the Daniel Langlois Foundation >>> telesymphony.