Figure 1.
How to compute the genus. (a) A chain with several bonds (in blue and orange) connecting various pairs of residues (black dots). (b) Chord diagram representing the same structure. (c) Parallel chords replaced by a single chord, and then – together with the backbone – replaced by ribbons, whose single boundary is shown in red. (d) After shrinking the backbone to a small circle, the ribbon diagram can be smoothly drawn on a surface of a torus, whose genus is g = 1.