Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!uunet!ig!daemon From: KRISTOFFERSON@BIONET-20.ARPA Newsgroups: bionet.general Subject: PDB on-line on BIONET: a dissenting view. Message-ID: <5840@ig.ig.com> Date: 12 Apr 88 02:42:52 GMT Sender: daemon@presto.ig.com Lines: 53 From: Brookhaven on-line on BIONET: a dissenting view. It seems that most reply to the decision of BIONET to , at least temporarily, not to provide the PDB data bank, on-line, has been negative. I must admit I have a dissenting opinion. The use of the PDB data bank data by molecular graphics software is generally dependant on work stations with interactive, high quality, graphic display. By the nature of the hardware on which BIONET is running I do not see how one could run software package(s) to take advantage of that data bank on-line. Of course one may answer me that having them on-line allows users to download the structure(s) for which they are interested, but here the problem is the size of an entry: a PDB entry with its atomic coordinates is generally as large as 100 Kb and downloading those entries is going to take a long time. One must also take in account that the majority of users which have molecular graphic software also subscribe to get copy the PDB tapes (you generally do not want to start downloading files 20 hours a week when you spent a relatively high number of K dollars to buy hardware and software, especially when the PDB tapes are not so expensive). In addition one of the few use of the PDB data bank to users with no molecular modelling software is to run programs to obtain secondary structure parameters from the tertiary structure and to use this information for secondary structure prediction of homologous proteins. In this case there is a solution that BIONET can implement: Chris Sander at the EMBL maintain a data bank of such secondary structure data as derived from the PDB data bank: the DSSP data bank [1], I believe that it would not be too difficult to get the permission to have that bank on-line and it does not take so much disk space. Also, to give hope to the under-equipped researcher, which like myself , have only access to PCs: Oxford University Press with the help of IBM-England and the permission of Brookhaven is going to release a CD-ROM package which include the PDB data bank and some software to access and display molecular structures on the PS/2 family of systems [2]. Amos Bairoch Dept. Med. Biochemistry University of Geneva ---------------------------------------- [1] Kabsch W., Sander C. Dictionary of protein secondary structure: pattern recognition of hydrogen-bonded and geometrical features." Biopolymers 22:2577-2637(1983). [2] For information contact: Mr. A. Hodgkin Oxford Electronic Publishing Oxford University Press Walton Street Oxford OX2 6DP