MESSAGE FROM THE RCSB PDB

In August, the wwPDB announced that effective October 15, 2006, PDB depositions will be restricted to atomic coordinates that are substantially determined by experimental measurements on specimens containing biological macromolecules. This policy was recommended and endorsed by a working group comprised of structural and computational biologists and endorsed by the wwPDB advisory committee. Thus, theoretical model depositions (such as models determined purely in silico using, for example, homology or ab initio methods) will no longer be accepted.

Theoretical models that have been available from the PDB archives will continue to be publicly available via the existing models FTP directory.

A paper describing the outcome of the working group's Workshop on Archiving Structural Models of Biological Macromolecules was published in Structure1.

Questions about this transition should be sent to mailto@info@wwpdb.org.

1. H.M. Berman, S.K. Burley, W. Chiu, A. Sali, A. Adzhubei, P.E. Bourne, S.H. Bryant, J. Roland L. Dunbrack, K. Fidelis, J. Frank, A. Godzik, K. Henrick, A. Joachimiak, B. Heymann, D. Jones, J.L. Markley, J. Moult, G.T. Montelione, C. Orengo, M.G. Rossmann, B. Rost, H. Saibil, T. Schwede, D.M. Standley, and J.D. Westbrook (2006) Outcome of a workshop on archiving structural models of biological macromolecules. Structure. 14: 1211-1217.

IN THIS ISSUE

This Fall newsletter describes new developments in data deposition tools, how to use Protein Workshop to view PDB structures, and the recently added RCSB PDB Poster Prizes.

In this quarter's Education Corner, Robert J. Warburton describes ways of seeing and thinking about PDB structures, and Wah Chiu discusses the future of cryo-electron microscopy in the Community Focus.

Annotator Kyle Burkhardt and Genji Kurisu (University of Tokyo) at the RCSB PDB exhibit booth at the ACA meeting