A NEW-GENERATION OF THE IMAGIC IMAGE-PROCESSING SYSTEM

One of the aims of modern microscopy is to quantify two-, three-, or e ven four-dimensional phenomena in biology, medicine, and material scie nces. The requirements imposed on software by such data processing are exemplified by the design considerations of the IMAGIC-5 software sys tem. This system includes facilities for multivariate statistical anal ysis of large data sets, for correlation averaging of two-dimensional crystals, and for three-dimensional reconstruction of macromolecular s tructures. The molecules may be arranged as two-dimensional crystals, as helices, or as single particles with arbitrary pointgroup symmetry. IMAGIC's novel angular reconstitution approach allows for the rapid d etermination of three-dimensional structures of uncrystallized molecul es to high resolution. The general organization, user interaction stra tegy, file structure, and extendibility of IMAGIC are discussed and il lustrated with some practical examples. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.