How to participate

Below are the simplest steps below to contribute with your own example (evidence) of the Q-mosaic in the protein you desire.

1. Go to https://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/jsmol/simple.htm. This is an external website that offers fast visualization of proteins using Jmol.

Note: You can also use Jmol locally or other visualization app such as VMD. The stated external website rendering Jmol is recommended just for ease of use.

2. In the referred website, click the "Load PDB by Id" button and enter any valid 4-character PDB code. A PDB code is the identifier of a protein structure, they start by a number (not 0) followed by three alphanumeric characters, for example 1crn, 1dsw, 2gsh, 3mht, etc.
   
   

   In summary, there are thousands of proteins to choose from, and in any you pick the Q-mosaic should be present 🙂.

   
   
3. Click the "Console" button at the bottom of the page, remove the text "help" and copy and paste the following commands (you can copy/paste all of them at once):

   select ala or val or ile or leu or met or phe or tyr or trp; color white;
   select ser or thr or asn or gln; color green;
   select asp or glu; color orange;
   select arg or his or lys; color blue;
   select cys or sec or gly or pro; color cyan;
   select all; spacefill vdw;
   restrict protein;
             

4. These commands will:
   • Color nonpolar amino acids white
   • Color polar amino acids green
   • Color acidic amino acids orange
   • Color basic amino acids blue
   • Color special amino acids cyan
   • Render residues as spheres according to van der Waals volume
   • Hide all molecules except the protein (e.g., water, ligands, ions)
In this manner, we are coloring the amino acids according to their chemical type, so that the mosaic can be appreciated.


5. Then click on "Execute". Et voilà! Is the mosaic there? When the image is rendered, click the "SAVE PNG" button to download the image.
6. Email your image to info@qmosaic.org. Just attach the image and include the name of the PDB ID you selected. Please, if you're not already a member, please first join. It's totally free.
7. In a few hours your image will be present at the repository.

Thank you for contributing to the project, you can also post and respond to items in the community.