>For those who insist on annotating every density blob, UNX atoms are the
> PDB's officially supported method for doing so (unless this has changed
> recently), or UNK/UNL for unknown amino acids and ligands.  These are not
> without their own problems but they at least make both the presence of an
> atom and the uncertainty about its identity explicit.
>
> Okay, so why don’t we recommend that this chloride be modeled as UNX?
> What’s the problem?
>
If you do that then what chemical type you are going to put into that
rightmost column of ATOM record of PDB file? Note, that must be a valid
chemical element symbol so that you can use such PDB file to calculate
R-factors, maps and whatnot (Obviously, "X" would not work!).



> (And why not make every water into UNX for good measure as well?)
>

Why not indeed, except that I would not call it water but "Dummy Atom" with
an element type of your choice.

Pavel

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