<p>To clarify, you are seeing reds and blues on the surface? If so, these are the sidechain oxygens and nitrogens. So you need to colour the whole residue not only the <code>element C</code> atoms. <code>color 0xFF7F50, resi 123</code> will colour the residue in the cartoon and surface as I omitted and <code>element C</code>. To revert <code>color atomic</code>.</p>
<p>In PyMOL an atom has a colour, which is then used by the representations. To have a differentially coloured representation, you need to make a copy of the object. <code>create copied, obj_name</code> and <code>hide cartoon</code> and <code>show surface</code> will do it.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-02T16:02:45.543Z
2022-09-02T16:02:45.543Z
Matteo Ferla
<p>I am somewhat familiar with the pymol userface, but not very good with commands. I'm working with a pentameric subunit protein and I want to color specific residues on the surface of the protein, not just the cartoon. I can use select resi #-#, and color those with the (sele) tab on the right, but I do not know how to color the surface this way. When you select the sequence it will only color the cartoon. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I'm using PyMOL 2.3.5 on Windows.</p>

<pymol>
How do I color selective residues on the surface of a protein in pymol?
# How do I color selective residues on the surface of a protein in pymol?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-25)

I am somewhat familiar with the pymol userface, but not very good with commands. I'm working with a pentameric subunit protein and I want to color specific residues on the surface of the protein, not just the cartoon. I can use select resi #-#, and color those with the (sele) tab on the right, but I do not know how to color the surface this way. When you select the sequence it will only color the cartoon. Any suggestions?

I'm using PyMOL 2.3.5 on Windows.

**Tags:** pymol

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-09-02. Score: 1

To clarify, you are seeing reds and blues on the surface? If so, these are the sidechain oxygens and nitrogens. So you need to colour the whole residue not only the `element C` atoms. `color 0xFF7F50, resi 123` will colour the residue in the cartoon and surface as I omitted and `element C`. To revert `color atomic`.

In PyMOL an atom has a colour, which is then used by the representations. To have a differentially coloured representation, you need to make a copy of the object. `create copied, obj_name` and `hide cartoon` and `show surface` will do it.


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