T7 DNA replisome

Surface model of the T7 replisome complex as described in Gao et al., Science 10.1126/science.aav7003 (2019). All components were printed separately and glued. Proteins subunits were printed in PLA, while nucleic (DNA, RNA, and dTTP) in white TPU. The helicases complex from PDB ID 6N7V is printed in gray, leading strand polymerase from PDB ID 6N7w is printed in green and cooper, lagging strand pol from PDB ID 6N9V is printed in red, blue, and yellow. All nucleic acids and relevant ligands were printed in white. RNA was painted black and dTTP was painted blue. An artificial DNA double-helix was generated in Chimera, the two strands were printed separately and used to connect and assemble the subunits (including the lagging strand loop). The same artificial DNA double-helix was printed 2x more times and used to enlarge the template DNA, leading and lagging strands.

All printed files are provided as stl. A .py session file usable in Chimera is also provided to help the assembly. The model was created to help me teaching Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the undergrad level.

Segmentation Software : Prusa Slicer

3D Modeling/CAD Software : Chimera

Model Origin : Hybrid: data + illustration

Printer Technology/Material : Polylactic Acid (PLA)/ Flexible

Printer Make/Model : Creality Ender 5 Pro

Print Units : mm

Scale At Given Print Units : 100x

Pre- and Postprocessing Instructions 

Printed at 0.2 resolution with 2 wall lines and 5% infill. The printer was modified with a direct drive extruder in order to print TPU. Extensive supports are required but were rather easy to remove.