Hi Markus,

Just to make sure that things are clear: PDB-REDO adds missing side chains 
(that is a design choice) and it also adds missing loops if, and only if, there 
is a homologous template, there is sufficient density (although the criteria 
are rather forgiving), and the geometry of the loop stays okay upon real-space 
refinement. We do not build termini.

Your water example is a very nice one, this also happens for main chain atoms 
unfortunately. So unlike building parts of the protein that are chemically 
attached, please be careful with building waters. Only build ones that you are 
sure are waters. If you know that it is something else, but you don’t know 
what, please don’t build anything. I actually encourage students to build 
waters by hand. It is really simple and fast in Coot and it takes though a tour 
of you structure model enabling you to spot other issues.

HTH,
Robbie

From: CCP4 bulletin board <CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> On Behalf Of Rudolph, Markus
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2023 15:58
To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] [Sender Not Verified] Re: [ccp4bb] To Trim or Not to To 
Trim

Hello Adrian,

Provided a crystal contains the intact protein, as measured by mass 
spectrometry of a washed and dissolved crystal, leaving out side-chains makes 
little sense, even if some of them are destroyed by X-rays during data 
collection. I realize that most of the time, no such analysis is done on 
crystals, but if you assume all residues are there, then they must fit into the 
asymmetric unit. This includes N- and C-terminal residues, loops, and any 
side-chains without density. If side-chains won't fit, e.g. by crashing into 
symmetry neighbors, then the main-chain trace is very likely wrong. Thus, 
placing side-chains in a model is a good test for a correct main-chain trace. I 
understand many protein architects out there omit the terminal extensions and 
longer loops, and so do I. pdb_redo will automatically complete a model, so one 
could say - don't bother, as a user I'll retrieve the re-refined model from 
there. This is not my personal choice of model building, but a practical option 
from the viewpoint of downstream users. Sometimes, however, I see models where 
side-chains are truncated but the little density still present for the 
side-chain is interpreted by water (see image attached, in which case the water 
comes from a symmetry-related position). If one says "don't build what you 
don't see but build what the data tell you", a well-intended but 
mis-interpreted water molecule may occupy the density belonging to a truncated 
side-chain. I as a user would be confused by this, especially when using such 
models for ligand binding studies where water is important. In our SBDD 
projects, we always take B-values into account, and we welcome complete models 
or we complete and re-refine them ourselves. So yes, my 12 points go to the 
"let the B-factors take care of it” song. But really, I'm thankful for _any_ 
published structure, even with sup-optimal parameterization, experienced 
structural biologists can deal with that and communicate the information to 
their collaborators.

<open_can_of_worms>
...which brings up the other evergreen, whether the PDB should be more strict 
about ...
</open_can_of_worms>


Best wishes,
Markus



On Fri, Mar 10, 2023 at 5:33 PM Goldman, Adrian 
<adrian.gold...@helsinki.fi<mailto:adrian.gold...@helsinki.fi>> wrote:
Maybe simplest just to trim it back. I do worry that the presence of a wrong 
conformation will lead to inaccurate vdw clashes that could negatively affect 
other atoms.

Sent from my iPhone

> On 10 Mar 2023, at 18:25, Phil Jeffrey 
> <pjeff...@princeton.edu<mailto:pjeff...@princeton.edu>> wrote:
>
> On 3/10/23 4:05 AM, Julia Griese wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> My impression has been that the most common approach these days is to “let 
>> the B-factors take care of it”, but I might be wrong. Maybe it’s time to run 
>> another poll?
>> Personally, I call any other approach R-factor cosmetics. The goal in model 
>> building is not to achieve the lowest possible R-factors, it’s to build the 
>> most physically meaningful, most likely to be correct, model.
>
> And I could call your approach "model cosmetics".
>
> If you can't see the side-chain, you don't know where it is and you probably 
> don't even know where the centroid of the distribution is. Only in the case 
> of very short side-chains with few rotamers can you make a reasonable volume 
> approximation to where the side-chain is and "let the B-factors" smear out 
> the density to cover a range of the projected conformations.
>
> For longer side-chains, if you put it in a single conformation, you are very 
> likely NOT coming close to correctly modeling the actual distribution of the 
> conformations.  So let's circle back on "most likely to be correct model" and 
> ask what we *actually* know about where the atoms are.
>
> Put your disordered Arg in with 10 alternate conformations, each with a 
> refined relative occupancy, and then let the B-factors smear that lot out, 
> and that's your better model.
>
> Phil Jeffrey
> Princeton
>
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