OCA allows the user to rapidly search through the contents of the entire PDB Archive for entries obeying certain constraints. A full text search can be made for any string appearing in the text of a PDB entry, excluding the coordinate records and PDB record names. Many specific records can be searched for regular expressions or numerical limits. OCA gives you the option of saving object sets resulting from queries. This saved set can be used as a starting point for further database operations or as a reference for your work. Every saved set includes the date of the search and the query from which it was generated.
The various fields shown on the OCA Advanced Search screen will be ANDed together before searching. All fields are insensitive to case.
It is a good idea to use the "Clear form" button before initiating any new searches. Once the constraints are set, click on the "Search" button to begin.
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The search fields of OCA are:
PDB ID code Four-character accession code Keyword Molecule name, class or family, or related term Author Family name of depositor or author of associated publication Text query Any word in the complete PDB text FASTA Search Fasta search of the sequence Experiment Method of structure determination Resolution A unique value or range of values, in Angstroms Space group Both extended and standard Hermann-Mauguin symbols Organism Trivial name, systematic name or expression system. Date (lower) Date entry was released or updated Date (upper) Date entry was released or updated Associated group Prosthetic group, metal ion, ligand or substrate, or its three letter PDB abbreviation
Boolean Searches and Wild Cards This version of OCA includes NOT, OR and 'Wild-cards' search.
The symbol '*' is used to denote a sequence of any number (including 0) of arbitrary characters. Just add a star'*' at the beginning or end of a word (or both) to 'extend' the search.
For example enter
"*ussman" in authors,
"*tox* in keywords to retrieve entries with keywords like
neurotoxic and toxin
"phos*" in Assoc.group.
Examples for NOT search are:
Author: not sussman
Keyword: -antifreeze
Organism: -snake
Assoc. group: -hem
Text query: milk not sugar
NOTE: 1. You may use the word 'not' (case is unimportant) or
the minus (-) sign attached to the word
2. sussman NOT (harel Silman) will expand to
sussman -harel -silman
Examples for OR search are:
Keyword: *ferr* or *hemo*
Author: silman or harel
Text: zinc AND (torpedo OR snake )
Organism: snake or torpedo
Assoc. group: *dibromo* or atp
Space group: p31 or p 2
This is a fast and simple way of finding a particular PDB entry. A PDB ID code or accession code is an identification code consisting of four characters. The first is a digit in the range 0 - 9, the remaining three are alpha-numeric.
You may use "*" or "." in place of any character, such as '9.' or '9*' to retrieve a list of PDB ID codes starting with "9", or '1.ce' or '1*ce' to retrieve a list of ID codes starting with "1" and ending with "ce".
This searches only the HEADER, TITLE, KEYWDS and COMPND records, or fields, of the PDB entry. These fields contain the classification, title of the experiments, classification and related terms, and molecule names, respectively.
Searching on multiple terms in this field causes them to be 'anded' together, giving the same result as using 'and' between the terms. For instance, 'hemoglobin deoxy ferrous' and 'hemoglobin and deoxy and ferrous' have the same result.
This field performs a search on the family names found in AUTHOR and JRNL AUTHOR fields. More than one name will be 'anded' for the search, and both fields are searched. The wild card '*' may be used. Stemming, or using just a portion of the word does not work.
For instance, on December 1, 1997, 'suss' returned no hits, 'suss*' returned 20 hits, as does 'sussman'. 'sussman and mathews' returned 0 hits, and 'sussman or mathews' returned 49 hits.
The full text search is based on the Glimpse indexing and query system.
This fields searches any word in the complete PDB file, not including the coordinate section, and not including the PDB record names. See the PDB Contents Guide for a complete description of the PDB format.
To get an idea of the power and speed of the browser, enter in the Text query field one of the following examples and press the Search button.
zinc and torpedo or snake (zinc and torpedo) or snakeIn the first case, the query is interpreted as 'zinc and (torpedo or snake)'.
Searchs a library containing all the protein sequences in the current PDB, using the FASTA package, for similar protein sequences to your's,
DATA FORMAT:
A sequence in any of the following "formats" can be entered (copy and paste) in the 'FASTA search' text input area. Spaces or character case are not important. A minimum of seven residue names must be entered.
1. Three letters code sequence: --------------------------- ASN CYS GLN GLN TYR VAL ASP GLU GLN PHE PRO GLY PHE SER GLY SER GLU MET TRP ASN PRO ASN ARG GLU MET SER GLU ASP CYS LEU TYR LEU ASN ILE TRP VAL PRO SER PRO ARG PRO LYS SER THR THR VAL MET VAL TRP ILE TYR GLY 2. One letter code sequence: ------------------------ NCQQYVDEQFPGFSGSEMWNPNREMS EDCLYLNIWVPSPRPKSTTVMVWIYGCUTOFF VALUE:
The 'cutoff value' limits the number of scores and alignments shown based on the expected number of scores. A cutoff value of 2.0 (-E 2.0) will show all library sequences with scores with an expectation value <= 2.0.
For protein searches, library sequences with E() values < 0.01 for searches of a 10,000 entry protein database are almost always homologous. Frequently sequences with E()-values from 1 - 10 are related as well. Remember, however, that these E() values also reflect differences between the amino acid composition of the query sequence and that of the "average" library sequence. Thus, when searches are done with query sequences with "biased" amino-acid composition, unrelated sequences may have "significant" scores because of sequence bias.
A file containing the sequence of every chain in the PDB in FASTA format can be found at ftp://ftp.rcsb.org/pub/pdb/derived_data/pdb_seqres.txt
FASTA is available from ftp://ftp.virginia.edu/pub/fasta/.
FASTA: Pearson, W.R. and Lipman, D.J. Improved tools for biological sequence comparison. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 85:2444-2448(1988)
Experiment
Method of structure determination. Use the pop-up button to choose diffraction, nmr, theoretical model, or all techniques to constrain your search. The EXPDTA records of the PDB files are searched.
Resolution
You may enter a range, such as '2.17-2.20' for an inclusive range search, or a unique value, such as '3.0', in Angstroms. The REMARK 2 record is searched.
Space group
The CRYST1 record is searched. Both extended and standard Hermann-Mauguin symbols are recognized. Entering either 'P 21' or 'P 1 21 1' currently returns 738 hits.
Organism
The scientific and common names and the expression systems as found on the SOURCE records in the PDB file are searched.
Date (lower), Date (upper)
These refer to the date an entry was released or updated, in DAY-MONTH-YEAR format, using either '/' or '-' as separators. The month can be entered as a 3-letter name, as in 9/Sep/1986, or as a number, as in 30-11-1990.
01-Dec-1997 is inserted as the default in the Date lower field.
Associated group
You may search for a prosthetic group, metal ion, ligand or substrate,
by chemical name or its three-letter PDB residue name. The PDB file HET
and HETNAM records are searched.
See the
The PDB Het Group Dictionary for complete descriptions of the het groups
currently in use.
Send your comments, suggestions, and bug reports to Jaime Prilusky at Jaime.Prilusky@weizmann.ac.il.