A brief instruction for running TM-align program:
(For detail, please see
Y Zhang, J Skolnick, Nucleic Acids Research, 2005 33: 2302)
Brief instruction (you can obtain the same information by running TM-align program without argument)
1. Align 'chain_1.pdb' and 'chain_2.pdb':
>TMalign chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb
2. Ask TM-align to start with an alignment specified in fasta file 'align.txt':
>TMalign chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb -i align.txt
or to stick the alignment to 'align.txt':
>TMalign chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb -I align.txt
3. Output the superposition to 'TM.sup', 'TM.sup_all' and 'TM.sup_atm':
>TMalign chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb -o TM.sup
To view superimposed C-alpha traces of aligned regions by rasmol or pymol:
>rasmol -script TM.sup
>pymol -d @TM.sup.pml
To view superimposed C-alpha traces of all regions:
>rasmol -script TM.sup_all
>pymol -d @TM.sup_all.pml
To view superimposed full-atom structures of aligned regions:
>rasmol -script TM.sup_atm
>pymol -d @TM.sup_atm.pml
To view superimposed full-atom structures of all regions:
>rasmol -script TM.sup_all_atm
>pymol -d @TM.sup_all_atm.pml
To view superimposed full-atom structures of all regions with ligands:
>rasmol -script TM.sup_all_atm_lig
>pymol -d @TM.sup_all_atm_lig.pml
4. There are two TM-scores reported. You should use the one normalized by
the length of the protein you are interested in.
If you want TM-score normalized by the average length of two proteins:
>TMalign chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb -a
or TM-score normalized by an assigned length (>L_min), e.g. 100 AA:
>TMalign chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb -L 100
If you want TM-score scaled by an assigned d0, e.g. 5 A:
>TMalign chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb -d 5
5. Output TM-align rotation matrix:
>TMalign chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb -m matrix.txt
6. Calculate TM-score based on sequence alignment:
(this option only available for C++ version)
>TMalign -seq chain_1.pdb chain_2.pdb
An example of running TM-align in Linux system
(Image of the example can be viewed at
here):
./TMalign model1.pdb model2.pdb
**************************************************************************
* TM-align (Version 20120419): A protein structural alignment algorithm *
* Reference: Y Zhang and J Skolnick, Nucl Acids Res 33, 2302-9 (2005) *
* Please email your comments and suggestions to: zhng@umich.edu *
**************************************************************************
Name of Chain_1: model1.pdb
Name of Chain_2: model2.pdb
Length of Chain_1: 97 residues
Length of Chain_2: 89 residues
Aligned length= 85, RMSD= 2.92, Seq_ID=n_identical/n_aligned= 0.071
TM-score= 0.61968 (if normalized by length of Chain_1)
TM-score= 0.65866 (if normalized by length of Chain_2)
(You should use TM-score normalized by length of the reference protein)
(":" denotes aligned residue pairs of d < 5.0 A, "." denotes other aligned residues)
TNQKTKELSNLIETFAEQSRVLEKECTKIGSK----RDSKELRYKIETELIPNCTSVRDKIESNILIHQNGKLSADFKNLKTKYQSLQQSYNQRKSLFPLK
. :::::::::::::::::::::.:: .:::::::::: :::::::::::::::::...::: ::: ::::::::::::::::::::::.
-----E--DPFQQVVKDTKEQLNRINNYITRHNTADDQEEEIQDILK-DVEETIVDLDRSIIVMKRDENED-VSG-REAQVKNIKQQLDALKLRFDRRI--
An example of running TM-align starting with specific alignment:
(In case that TM-align does not generate the optimal alignment, assigning
an appropriate alignment can improve the final alignment results of TM-align,
as shown in the example below)
./TMalign model1.pdb model2.pdb -i align.txt
**************************************************************************
* TM-align (Version 20120419): A protein structural alignment algorithm *
* Reference: Y Zhang and J Skolnick, Nucl Acids Res 33, 2302-9 (2005) *
* Please email your comments and suggestions to: zhng@umich.edu *
**************************************************************************
Name of Chain_1: model1.pdb
Name of Chain_2: model2.pdb
Length of Chain_1: 97 residues
Length of Chain_2: 89 residues
User-specified initial alignment: TM/Lali/rmsd= 0.66740, 81, 2.116
Aligned length= 82, RMSD= 2.01, Seq_ID=n_identical/n_aligned= 0.136
TM-score= 0.69535 (if normalized by length of Chain_1)
TM-score= 0.70780 (if normalized by length of Chain_2)
(You should use TM-score normalized by length of the reference protein)
(":" denotes aligned residue pairs of d < 5.0 A, "." denotes other aligned residues)
TNQKTKELSNLIETFAEQSRVLEKECTKIGSKRDSKELR-YKIETELIPNCTSVRDKIESN-I-LIH-----QNGKLSADFKNLKTKYQSLQQSYNQRKSLFPLK
::::::::::::::::::::::::::: .: :: ::::: ::::::::::::::: : :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::
----EDPFQQVVKDTKEQLNRINNYITRHNT---AD-DQEEEIQD-ILKDVEETIVDLDRSIIVMK-RDENEDVSGREAQVKNIKQQLDALKLRFDRRI------
Back to TM-align homepage