A Display of Biopolymer Using Virtual Reality Modeling Language

Takeshi UNO, Haruhisa HAYASHI, Kazushige YAMANA and Hidehiko NAKANO*

(Received: October 13, 1997; Accepted for publication: November 24, 1997 ; Published on Web : March 14, 1998)

A molecular graphics program 'Modrast-P' was extended in its function which generates a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) format. By using this function, the data of the molecular model displayed on Modrast-P are converted to a VRML format and can be displayed on a WWW browser. It has various representations, for example, whole structure of space-filling model (Fig. 1), ball-and-stick model, and backbone model (Figs. 2, 3), backbone model with specified part as space-filling model (Fig. 4), and enlarged ball-and-stick models of a part of compounds (Figs. 5, 6). A platform-independent VRML file generated by this program is very efficient for the exchange of molecular information through the computer network.

Keywords: Molecular Graphics, Virtual Reality Modeling Language ( VRML ), World Wide Web ( WWW )

Text in Japanese