MOLECULAR SCENE ANALYSIS - THE INTEGRATION OF DIRECT-METHODS AND ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE STRATEGIES FOR SOLVING PROTEIN CRYSTAL-STRUCTURES

A knowledge-based approach to crystal structure determination is prese nted. The approach integrates direct-methods and artificial-intelligen ce strategies to rephrase the structure determination process as an ex ercise in scene analysis. A general joint probability distribution fra mework, which allows the incorporation of isomorphous replacement, ano malous scattering and a priori structural information, forms the basis of the direct-methods strategies. The accumulated knowledge, on cryst al and molecular structures is exploited through the use of artificial -intelligence strategies, which include techniques of knowledge repres entation, search and machine learning.