Atomic Positions

The refined coordinates of the crystallographic asymmetric unit are stored in the ATOM_SITE category. Atomic positions and their associated uncertainties may be stored in either Cartesian or fractional coordinates, and anisotropic temperature factors and occupancies may be stored for each position.

For each atomic position must be uniquely identified by the data item _atom_site.id. Each position must also include a reference (_atom_site.type_symbol) to the table of elemental symbols in category ATOM_TYPE. All other data items in ATOM_SITE category are optional.

A typical atomic position for a macromolecule includes a variety of label information. The data items which label atomic positions can be divided into two groups: those that are integrated into higher level structural descriptions and those that are provided to hold a particular choice of nomenclature. These distinctions are described briefly in the following list of data items which may be used as part of an atom label.

_atom_site.label_alt_id
This data item is a reference to item _atom_sites_alt.id defined in category ATOM_SITES_ALT. This item is a unique identifier for each alternative site in the ATOM_SITES_ALT list.
_atom_site.label_asym_id
This data item is reference to item _struct_asym.id defined in category STRUCT_ASYM. This item identifies a particular entity in the crystallographic asymmetric unit.
_atom_site.label_atom_id
This data item is a reference to item _chem_comp_atom.atom_id defined in category CHEM_COMP_ATOM. This identifier uniquely identifies each atom within each chemical component.
_atom_site.label_comp_id
This data item is a reference to item _chem_comp.id defined in category CHEM_COMP. This item is the primary identifier for chemical components which may either be mononers in a polymeric entity or complete non-polymer entities.
_atom_site.label_entity_id
This data item is a reference to _entity.id defined in the ENTITY category. This item is used to identify chemically distinct portions of the structure (e.g. polymer chains, ligands, solvent).
_atom_site.label_seq_id
This data item is a reference to _entity_poly_seq.num defined in the ENTITY_POLY_SEQ category. This item is used to maintain the correspondence between the chemical sequence of a polymeric entity and the sequence information in the coordinate list and in may other structural categories. This identifier has no meaning for non-polymer entities.
_atom_site.auth_asym_id
This data item is an author defined alternative to the value of _atom_site.label_asym_id. This item is often used to hold a strand or chain identifier.
_atom_site.auth_atom_id
This data item is an author defined alternative to the value of _atom_site.label_atom_id. This item is often used to hold a particular choice of atom names.
_atom_site.auth_comp_id
This data item is an author defined alternative to the value of _atom_site.label_comp_id. This item is often used to hold a particular choice of residue or ligand names.
_atom_site.auth_seq_id
This data item is an author defined alternative to the value of _atom_site.label_seq_id. This item is often used to hold a particular numbering scheme in the chemical sequence.
_atom_site.group_PDB
This data item is a place holder for the tags used by the PDB to identify coordinate records.
_atom_site.footnote_id
This data item is a reference to atom_sites_footnote.id in category ATOMS_SITES_FOOTNOTE. This item is provided as a means to include additional textual information about an atomic position or about a group of atomic positions.

Alternative conformations are identified in the ATOM_SITE category by the data item _atom_site.label_alt_id. This item refers the parent item definition of the alternate site identifier in category ATOM_SITES_ALT. The ATOM_SITES_ALT category contains the list of each alternative conformation. Ensembles of alternative conformations are identified in category ATOM_SITES_ALT_ENS. Each ensemble is generated from one or more of the alternate conformations listed in in the list of alternative sites in category ATOM_SITES_ALT. The relationships among this ATOM_SITE group of categories is shown in the following figure.

An abbreviated example of the ATOM_SITE category.

loop_
_atom_site.group_PDB
_atom_site.type_symbol
_atom_site.label_atom_id
_atom_site.label_comp_id
_atom_site.label_asym_id
_atom_site.label_seq_id
_atom_site.label_alt_id
_atom_site.Cartn_x
_atom_site.Cartn_y
_atom_site.Cartn_z
_atom_site.occupancy
_atom_site.B_iso_or_equiv
_atom_site.footnote_id
_atom_site.auth_seq_id
_atom_site.id
 ATOM N  N   VAL  A  11  .  25.369  30.691  11.795  1.00  17.93  .  11   1
 ATOM C  CA  VAL  A  11  .  25.970  31.965  12.332  1.00  17.75  .  11   2
 ATOM C  C   VAL  A  11  .  25.569  32.010  13.808  1.00  17.83  .  11   3
 ATOM O  O   VAL  A  11  .  24.735  31.190  14.167  1.00  17.53  .  11   4
 ATOM C  CB  VAL  A  11  .  25.379  33.146  11.540  1.00  17.66  .  11   5
 ATOM C  CG1 VAL  A  11  .  25.584  33.034  10.030  1.00  18.86  .  11   6
 ATOM C  CG2 VAL  A  11  .  23.933  33.309  11.872  1.00  17.12  .  11   7
 ATOM N  N   THR  A  12  .  26.095  32.930  14.590  1.00  18.97  4  12   8
 ATOM C  CA  THR  A  12  .  25.734  32.995  16.032  1.00  19.80  4  12   9
 ATOM C  C   THR  A  12  .  24.695  34.106  16.113  1.00  20.92  4  12  10
 ATOM O  O   THR  A  12  .  24.869  35.118  15.421  1.00  21.84  4  12  11
 ATOM C  CB  THR  A  12  .  26.911  33.346  17.018  1.00  20.51  4  12  12
 ATOM O  OG1 THR  A  12  3  27.946  33.921  16.183  0.50  20.29  4  12  13
 ATOM O  OG1 THR  A  12  4  27.769  32.142  17.103  0.50  20.59  4  12  14
 ATOM C  CG2 THR  A  12  3  27.418  32.181  17.878  0.50  20.47  4  12  15
 ATOM C  CG2 THR  A  12  4  26.489  33.778  18.426  0.50  20.00  4  12  16
 ATOM N  N   ILE  A  13  .  23.664  33.855  16.884  1.00  22.08  .  13  17
 ATOM C  CA  ILE  A  13  .  22.623  34.850  17.093  1.00  23.44  .  13  18
 ATOM C  C   ILE  A  13  .  22.657  35.113  18.610  1.00  25.77  .  13  19
 ATOM O  O   ILE  A  13  .  23.123  34.250  19.406  1.00  26.28  .  13  20
 ATOM C  CB  ILE  A  13  .  21.236  34.463  16.492  1.00  22.67  .  13  21
 ATOM C  CG1 ILE  A  13  .  20.478  33.469  17.371  1.00  22.14  .  13  22
 ATOM C  CG2 ILE  A  13  .  21.357  33.986  15.016  1.00  21.75  .  13  23
# - - - - Abbreviated  - - - -
 HETATM C C1 APS  C   .  1   4.171  29.012   7.116  0.58  17.27  1 300  101
 HETATM C C2 APS  C   .  1   4.949  27.758   6.793  0.58  16.95  1 300  102
 HETATM O O3 APS  C   .  1   4.800  26.678   7.393  0.58  16.85  1 300  103
 HETATM N N4 APS  C   .  1   5.930  27.841   5.869  0.58  16.43  1 300  104
# - - - - Abbreviated  - - - -

An abbreviated example illustrating the description of alternate conformations an the HIV protease structure (PDB 5HVP, Fitzgerald et al., 1990).

loop_
_atom_sites_alt.id
_atom_sites_alt.details
 '.'
; Atom sites with the alternative id set to null are not modeled in
  alternative conformations
;
 '1'
; Atom sites with the alternative id set to 1 have been modeled in
  alternative conformations with respect to atom sites marked with
  alternative id 2. The conformations of amino acid side chains
  and solvent atoms with alternative id set to 1 correlate with the
  conformation of the inhibitor marked with alternative id 1. They
  have been given an occupancy of 0.58 to match the occupancy assigned
  to the inhibitor.
;
 '2'
; Atom sites with the alternative id set to 2 have been modeled in
  alternative conformations with respect to atom sites marked with
  alternative id 1. The conformations of amino acid side chains
  and solvent atoms with alternative id set to 2 correlate with the
  conformation of the inhibitor marked with alternative id 2. They
  have been given an occupancy of 0.42 to match the occupancy assigned
  to the inhibitor.
;
 '3'
; Atom sites with the alternative id set to 3 have been modeled in
  alternative conformations with respect to atoms marked with alternative
  id 4. The conformations of amino acid side chains and solvent atoms with
  alternative id set to 3 do not correlate with the conformation of the
  inhibitor. These atom sites have arbitrarily been given an occupancy of
  0.50.
;

loop_
_atom_sites_alt_ens.id
_atom_sites_alt_ens.details
 'Ensemble 1-A'
; The inhibitor binds to the enzyme in two, roughly twofold symmetric,
  alternative conformations.

  This conformational ensemble includes the more populated conformation of
  the inhibitor (id=1) and the amino acid side chains and solvent structure
  that correlate with this inhibitor conformation.

  Also included are one set (id=3) of side chains with alternative
  conformations when the conformations are not correlated with the
  inhibitor conformation.
;

loop_
_atom_sites_alt_gen.ens_id
_atom_sites_alt_gen.alt_id
  'Ensemble 1-A' '.'
  'Ensemble 1-A' '1'
  'Ensemble 1-A' '3'