DICHROWEB, an online server for protein secondary structure analyses from circular dichroism spectroscopic data

Abstract

The DICHROWEB web server enables on-line analyses of circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic data, providing calculated secondary structure content and graphical analyses comparing calculated structures and experimental data. The server is located at http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/cdweb and may be accessed via a password-limited user ID, available upon completion of a registration form. The server facilitates analyses using five popular algorithms and (currently) seven different reference databases by accepting data in a user-friendly manner in a wide range of formats, including those output by both commercial CD instruments and synchrotron radiation-based circular dichroism beamlines, as well as those produced by spectral processing software packages. It produces as output calculated secondary structures, a goodness-of-fit parameter for the analyses, and tabular and graphical displays of experimental, calculated and difference spectra. The web pages associated with the server provide information on CD spectroscopic methods and terms, literature references and aids for interpreting the analysis results.

Figure 1

Example of the graphical output of DICHROWEB. Experimental (input) data are plotted with crosses in green, the calculated spectrum derived from the calculated output secondary structure is plotted with open boxes in blue, and the difference spectra is depicted in vertical lines in purple, (a) for a ‘good’ fit, and (b) for a ‘poor’ fit.

Figure 1

Example of the graphical output of DICHROWEB. Experimental (input) data are plotted with crosses in green, the calculated spectrum derived from the calculated output secondary structure is plotted with open boxes in blue, and the difference spectra is depicted in vertical lines in purple, (a) for a ‘good’ fit, and (b) for a ‘poor’ fit.