HYDROMIC: prediction of hydrodynamic properties of rigid macromolecular structures obtained from electron microscopy images

We have developed a procedure for the prediction of hydrodynamic coefficien ts and other solution properties of macromolecules and macromolecular compl exes whose volumes have been generated from electron microscopy images. Sta rting from the structural files generated in the three-dimensional reconstr uctions of such molecules, it is possible to construct a hydrodynamic model for which the solution properties can be calculated. We have written a com puter program, HYDROMIC, that implements all the stages of the calculation. The use of this procedure is illustrated with a calculation of the solutio n properties of the volume of the cytosolic chaperonin CCT, obtained from c ryoelectron microscopy images.