Manual

The following sections briefly describe how to run DATVC from the command-line, the required input and runtime output

Introduction

DATVC estimates the molecular weight (MW) for proteins based on the Volume of Correlation method (Rambo & Tainer, 2013).

The Volume of Correlation of a particle, \(V_c\), is defined as:

\[V_c = \frac{I(0)}{\int_0^\infty s\cdot I(s) ds}\]

where the scattering curve is completed in the range \(0 \le s \lt s(\text{first})\) by extrapolation using the Guinier approximation, using the \(R_g\) value provided by the user.

With \(V_c\), a MW estimate for proteins may be obtained as:

\[MW = \left(\frac{V_c^2 / R_g}{c}\right)^k\]

The constants \(c=0.1231\) and \(k=1.0\) were empirically determined by the authors.

Running datvc

Usage:

$ datvc [OPTIONS] <SASDATA(s)>

OPTIONS known by DATVC are described in the next section, the required argument(s) FILE(S) in the section on input files.

Command-Line Arguments and Options

DATVC requires the following command line arguments:

Argument Description
SASDATA(S) One or more experimental SAS data (.dat) or regularised SAS data (.out) files.

Absolute as well as relative paths to data files are accepted. Instead of a file name, one of the arguments may be given as ‘-‘ to read regularised SAS data (.out) from stdin.

DATVC recognizes the following command-line options:

Short option Long option Description
  --i0=<VALUE> Forward scattering intensity (I(0))
  --rg=<VALUE> Radius of gyration (Rg)
  --first=<N> Index of the first data point to use. Default: 1.
-u --unit=<u|1|2|3|4> Define angular units of the experimental SAS data (.dat) or regularised SAS data (.out)
-v --version Print version information and exit.
-h --help Print usage information and exit.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options as well.

Runtime output

DATVC output consists of result lines for each input file with the following values: smax (\(\AA^{-1}\)), Vc, MW (Da), file name.

datvc input files

DATVC expects background-subtracted experimental SAS data (.dat) or regularised SAS data (.out) files.

If SASDATA is a regularised SAS data (.out) file, reciprocal space \(R_g\) and \(I(0)\) stated in the file are used, but may be overridden by the corresponding command-line options.

The options --i0, --rg, --first and --unit are applied identically to all simultaneous input files.

Examples

Molecular Weight estimate from experimental SAS data (.dat); values for --rg, --i0 and --first from AUTORG.

$ datvc --rg=15.0 --i0=6.47 --first=2 lyzexp.dat
   0.300184        148.568        11953.7      lyzexp.dat

Here the Molecular Weight is calculated to 11954 Da.

Molecular Weight from regularised SAS data (.out); values for --rg, --i0 are taken from the .out file.

$ datvc ly01.out
   0.300200        151.401        12075.8      ly01.out

Here the Molecular Weight is calculated to 12076 Da.