1. Introduction This poster describes an approach to generate adaptive and quality tetrahedral meshes for biomolecules from PDB/PQR or cryoEM data. First we construct electron density maps from PDB/PQR files, or segment cryoEM data to identify different subunits. Secondly, we develop a variant of the dual contouring method to generate interior and exterior meshes. The mesh adaptivity is determined by specific structural properties in order to preserve features while minimizing the number of elements. A parallel algorithm is designed for large datasets, and different substructures are meshed from segmented cryoEM data. Thirdly, exterior meshes are extended to a large boundary. Finally, the mesh quality is improved to satisfy the requirements of finite element calculations. Some of our generated meshes, e.g., monomer and tetrameric mouse acetylcholinesterase (mAChE), have been successfully used in finite element simulations. 2. Overview There are four steps in our biomolecular meshing process:  Data acquisition – construct volumetric data from PDB/PQR, or segment cryoEM data to identify its subunits.  Primary mesh extraction – develop a variant of the dual contouring method to generate tetrahedral meshes, and design a parallel algorithm for large datasets. For cryoEM data, different subunits are detected.  Mesh extension – generate the exterior mesh.  Quality improvement – use edge-contraction and smoothing. Tetrahedral Finite Element Meshing for Biomolecules Yongjie (Jessica) Zhang*, Chandrajit L. Bajaj*, Zeyun Yu*, Yuhua Song †, Deqiang Zhang ‡, Nathan A. Baker †, J. Andrew McCammon ‡ *ICES & CS, Univ. of Texas at Austin † Biochem & Mol Biophy, Washington Univ. in St. Louis ‡ Chem & Biochem, UCSD * Please contact for further information. 3. Data Acquisition Two methods are adopted to convert PDB/PQR into electron density maps: the multi-grid method and the blurring method. Based on properties of cryoEM data, a fast marching method is selected to distinguish its different subunits. 3.1 PDB/PQR Data The multi-grid method: A characteristic function f(x) is selected to represent an “inflated” van der Waals-based accessibility. 3.2 cryoEM Data – segmentation [5] The detection of critical points. The detection of icosahedral symmetry axes. The segmentation of asymmetric subunits – a variant of the fast marching method. 4.2 Parallel Meshing Algorithm First we divide the volumetric data into small ones, then each sub- volume is assigned to a processor and is meshed in parallel. For those sign change edges and interior edges lying on the interface between subvolumes, we analyze them separately. Finally, we merge the generated meshes together. Fig. 1. Adaptive tetrahedral meshes of mAChE. The distribution of electrostatic potential: blue - positive; red - negative; white - neutral. Fig. 2. Overview of the comprehensive method Fig. 4. The analysis domain of exterior meshes. (a) – the circum-sphere has the radius of r. ‘S 0 ’ is the maximum sphere inside the data box, ‘S 1 ’ is an outer sphere r 1 = (20 ~ 40)r. (b) - the diffusion domain. (c) - the boundary is a cubic box. References 1.Y. Zhang, C. Bajaj, B.-S. Sohn. 3D Finite Element Meshing from Imaging Data. Accepted in the special issue of CMAME on Unstructured Mesh Generation Y. Zhang, C. Bajaj, B.-S. Sohn. Adaptive and Quality 3D Meshing from Imaging Data, ACM Symposium on Solid Modeling and Applications. pp , Seattle, June Y. Song, Y. Zhang, T. Shen, C. Bajaj, J. McCammon, N. Baker. Finite Element Solution of the Steady-state Smoluchowski Equation for Rate Constant Calculations. Biophysical Journal, 86(4): , Y. Song, Y. Zhang, C. Bajaj, N. Baker. Continuum Diffusion Reaction Rate Calculations of Wild Type and Mutant Mouse Acetylcholinesterase: Adaptive Finite Element Analysis. Biophysical Journal 87(3), Z. Yu, C. Bajaj. Visualization of Icosahedral Virus Structures from Reconstructed Volumetric Maps. Techniqical Report, CS Dept., the Univ. of Texas at Austin, Acknowledgements: Thank Prof. Wah Chiu for providing the rice dwarf virus (RDV) data. (a) mAChE(b) the cavity (c) the interior mesh (d) an exterior mesh within a small sphere (e) an exterior mesh within a large sphere (f) an exterior mesh within a cubic box The blurring method: Blinn modeled electron density maps for molecules using the summation of Gaussian density distributions: (3) 3.3 Adding an Outer Boundary First we add a sphere S 0 with radius r 0 (r 0 = 2 n /2 = 2 n-1 ) outside the molecular surface, and generate meshes between the molecular surface and the outer sphere S 0. Then we extend the tetrahedral meshes from the sphere S 0 to the outer bounding sphere S 1. (a)(b) (c) 4. Tetrahedral Mesh Extraction 4.1 A Variant of Dual Contouring Method The dual contouring method has been extended to extract tetrahedral meshes from volumetric scalar field [1][2]. Sign change edge, interior edge/face in boundary cell and interior cell all need to be analyzed. Differently, here we only consider two kinds of edges: sign change edges and interior edges. Fig. 5. 2D/ 3D triangulation. 4.3 Subunit Identification The segmented cryoEM data is divided into several intervals, each of which contains one subunit. So we make a sequence of these subunits, and assign a material index to each grid point indicating which subunit it belongs to. The material index is used to detect the boundary for each classified or segmented subunit domain. 5. Mesh Extension The next step is to construct tetrahedral meshes gradually from the sphere S 0 to the bounding sphere S th International Meshing Roundtable, Williamsburg, Virginia, September 19-22, Quality Improvement Three metrics: edge-ratio, Joe-Liu parameter and min volume bound, are used to measure mesh quality. Isolated vertices/components removal – connectivity Overlap situation detection and removal Edge-ratio improvement – edge contraction Joe-Liu parameter and min volume – smoothing Fig. 7. Tetrameric mAChE 4 cavities of 1C2B 1C2B 1C2O1C2B Int4Int3Int2 Ribosome 30S Ribosome 50S MicrotubuleHemoglobin Fig. 6. Meshing examples from PDB/PQR data 2D triangulationParallel 2D triangulation Sign change edgeInterior edge 7. Application PDB/PQR – multi-grid method PDB/PQR – blurring method Segmented cryoEM Data The generated meshes of mAChE have been successfully used in solving the steady-state Smoluchowski equaiton [3][4]. Or in flux operator J:  -- whole domain  -- biomolecule domain  -- free space in   a – reactive region  r – reflective region  b – boundary for  (1) (2) (3) Diffusion rate: Fig. 3. Rice Dwarf Virus (RDV) Joe-Liu parameter: Schematic of problem domain [3]