Deriving folds of macromolecular complexes through electron cryomicroscopy and bioinformatics approaches.

Intermediate-resolution (7-9A) structures of large macromolecular complexes can be obtained by electron cryomicroscopy. This structural information, combined with bioinformatics data for the individual protein components or domains, can lead to a fold model for the entire complex. Such approaches have been demonstrated with the 6.8 A structure of the rice dwarf virus to derive models for the major capsid shell proteins.