Proteins on genomes.jbrowse.org
3 videos in this tutorial
The tutorials target the JBrowse v5 beta, and the v4.3.0 release
on the download page lacks some of what they show. To install the
beta of JBrowse Web, run npm install -g @jbrowse/cli@next, then
jbrowse create jbrowse2 --branch v5.0.0-beta.13. Desktop beta builds are coming soon.
genomes.jbrowse.org loads the protein3d and msaview plugins, so you can open any gene in a linear genome view as a 3D structure or as a cross-species protein MSA. Both views stay linked to the genome, so hovering a variant highlights the residue it lands on. We start from the protein browser, which builds that session from a gene symbol, then make the same views by hand for TP53 as an AlphaFold structure and NLRP1 as an MSA, and read the MSA's domains back on the genome.
Prerequisites
- the protein3d and msaview plugins. In your own JBrowse, install both from the plugin store (Adding the plugins to your own instance); genomes.jbrowse.org already loads them
Where the data comes from
Nothing to download: the protein3d and msaview plugins fetch from these services, per gene, when you launch a structure or an alignment. The examples launch from the gene track in the hosted hg38 config on genomes.jbrowse.org.
The files
- AlphaFold DB, where a launched structure comes from: https://alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/
- UniProt, the isoform mapping and the projected Domains, Chains, Mutations and AA Modifications tracks: https://www.uniprot.org/
- NCBI's ortholog report, the MSA's rows: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/docs/v2/reference-docs/rest-api/
- NCBI's Conserved Domain Database, the alignment's overlay: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/cdd.shtml
Opening a gene in the protein browser
Open the protein browser and
search for TP53, or arrive with the gene resolved at
?gene=TP53. The
browser builds one session with three linked views: the coding exons back to
back in a linear genome view, the AlphaFold structure, and a cross-species
protein alignment. Hover a residue in any of them and its codon lights up in the
other two.
Two controls on the page shape the session:
- Opens on takes a residue: ?gene=TP53&residue=248&align=live opens on R248 with TP53's orthologs from NCBI, which Build cross-species alignment aligns.
- Open in JBrowse hands the session to the full app, where every view takes the menus described below.
The rest of the page makes these views one at a time from the hosted hg38 genome view, which is the route for a gene or track the protein browser does not cover.
Launching a structure
Open hg38 on genomes.jbrowse.org and type TP53
into the location box. The hosted config ships a name index, so gene symbols
resolve.1
Right-click the gene. The menu has Launch protein view from protein3d and Launch MSA view from msaview, which the next section covers. Choose Launch protein view.
The dialog opens on its AlphaFoldDB search tab:
- Look up from the feature's identifiers (selected) maps the transcript's accession to UniProt entries and picks the reviewed one.
- Choose transcript isoform opens on the isoform you right-clicked, picks which transcript becomes the query, and tags the isoforms whose translation matches the structure's residues.
- Launch renders the structure with Mol*.
When a structure's sequence differs from the transcript's translation, the dialog aligns them in the browser. Import manual alignment... in the view menu takes a pairwise alignment of your own in Clustal format instead.
The structure opens with the genome view still above it. Hovering a genomic position highlights the matching residue on the structure, on the pairwise alignment above it and in the per-residue tracks, and hovering the structure highlights the genomic position. g2p_mapper maps a position to a residue through the transcript's CDS, so introns, UTRs and residues missing from the structure highlight nothing. Each missing residue shows as a gap in the Pairwise alignment panel. The lookup needs a gene feature with a recognizable protein or transcript ID, which the RefSeq gene tracks on the hosted configs have.
The protein view also has per-residue tracks for pLDDT (AlphaFold's confidence), domains, helices and hydrophobicity. Open side by side, at the foot of the list the arrow beside the dialog's Launch button opens, puts the protein view beside the genome view. Click the nuclear export signal on the alignment panel's Motif row to select its residues and band their codons on the gene.
Other views and structure sources in the Launch dialog
The arrow beside Launch lists everything the dialog can build.
Launch 1D protein annotation view opens a linear genome view whose genome is the protein, because the plugin registers the UniProt accession as a temporary assembly with the amino-acid sequence as its reference, so coordinates are residues. The view has a track per UniProt feature type, plus Antigen, Variation, AlphaFold confidence (pLDDT) and AlphaMissense (variant effect) scores. None is on at first, so turn them on in the track selector under Session tracks.
The dialog's other tabs take a structure from elsewhere:
- PDB search lists the experimental structures PDBe maps to the protein's UniProt entry
- Foldseek search finds structures similar to the protein's
- File or URL takes a PDB or mmCIF file of yours
Launching an MSA
On the gene's right-click menu, Launch MSA view builds a cross-species protein MSA from the ortholog gene NCBI publishes per species for most annotated genes. The dialog opens on its Orthologs tab, and these fields matter:
- Query species is the species the gene came from, free text resolved against NCBI's taxonomy: a scientific name, a common name or a taxon id
- Rows to align is how many species to build. NCBI orders its ortholog report from the reference organisms outward, so this takes the closest N
- Choose isoform picks which transcript becomes the query row, the one the genome view stays linked to
- MSA Algorithm sets which aligner EBI runs, Clustal Omega by default
- BLAST query, a separate tab, takes a gene with no resolvable symbol
Press Submit. A multiple sequence alignment view opens below the genome view, with a tree on the left, the alignment beside it, and the conserved-domain overlay drawn over the residues once NCBI returns it.
The view opens at residue zoom, a window on the N terminus of a long protein. Fit horizontally, under the toolbar's fit and zoom button, puts the whole alignment on screen, which is the zoom the domain blocks read at.
Each panel's menu has Arrange all views → Side by side, so a hover reaches the genome, alignment and structure views at once.
The figures below take NLRP1, an inflammasome sensor whose domain architecture
varies between mammals. Type NLRP1 into the location box, right-click the
gene, choose Launch MSA view and press Submit.
Reading NLRP1's conserved-domain overlay on the MSA
Each colored block is an NCBI conserved domain, drawn in alignment columns. The pyrin (PYD) domain sits at the N terminus of human NLRP1 and is absent from mouse Nlrp1a. NACHT, the winged helix, HD2, FIIND and CARD run across nearly every row and are the control; the whale rows have only the C-terminal end.
The domain calls come from NCBI's protein records. For a protein NCBI has no calls for:
react-msaview-cli interproscanscans the sequences into a domain file.- File → Annotations → Open annotation file... reads that file in.
- File → Annotations → How to get a domain file... opens a
walkthrough that also
covers
interpro, the instant path when the rows are UniProt accessions.
UniProt domains in genome coordinates for NLRP1
UCSC projects UniProt's annotations onto the genome, so the hosted config holds them as tracks. Turn on UniProt - Domains (under Genes and Gene Predictions) in the linear view you launched from, then narrow it to one record:
- Filter by... in the track menu applies the row
uniProtIdisQ9C000, the gene's reviewed UniProt entry. Without it, the track draws a domain once per isoform, and isoforms sharing exons overlap. - UniProt - Chains, Mutations and AA Modifications project the rest of the record.
Adding the plugins to your own instance
The plugin store lists the two plugins as Protein3d and MSAView, and Installing plugins covers each way to install them.
The protein3d and msaview plugins add view types launched from a gene's
right-click menu in JBrowse Web and Desktop. The single-view embedded components
host only a linear genome view, so neither view type appears there.
JBrowseR's JBrowseRApp takes both runtime plugins and a views
list, while anywidget's JBrowseApp has no plugin
loading yet.2
The approach is described in Proteins in the Genome Browser (Journal of Molecular Biology, 2026).
See also
- Tutorial: Basic usage of genomes.jbrowse.org
- Tutorial: Synteny on genomes.jbrowse.org
- Tutorial: TP53 from prediction to crystal
External links
- JBrowseMSA user guide
- jbrowse-plugin-protein3d
- jbrowse-plugin-msaview
- g2p_mapper
- AlphaFold DB
- UniProt
- NCBI Datasets gene orthologs
- NCBI Conserved Domain Database
- Proteins in the Genome Browser
Citations
- Broz P, Dixit VM. Inflammasomes: mechanism of assembly, regulation and signalling. Nat Rev Immunol 2016.
Notes
-
The JBrowseMSA Gene Explorer builds a linked genome view, structure and MSA from a
geneand ataxonin its URL, such as ?gene=TP53&taxon=9606. ↩ -
A
ProteinViewentry in a session-spec URL opens a connected view for demo links and embedded apps. The short form takesuniprotId,transcriptIdand aconnectedViewwith theassembly,locandtracksto look the transcript up in; the plugin derives the AlphaFold structure and translates the transcript's CDS. The explicit form takes a structureurl, feature and protein sequence, for a transcript no loaded track serves. AProteinViewwith only aurlopens as a standalone structure. The protein3d launching guide has both forms. ↩
Feedback on this tutorial is welcome: contact us.