Proper modelling of ligand binding requires an ensemble of bound and unbound states.

ABSTRACT: Although noncovalent binding by small molecules cannot be assumed a priori to be stoichiometric in the crystal lattice, occupancy refinement of ligands is often avoided by convention. Occupancies tend to be set to unity, requiring the occupancy error to be modelled by the B factors, and residual weak density around the ligand is necessarily attributed to `disorder'. Where occupancy refinement is performed, the complementary, superposed unbound state is rarely modelled. Here, it is shown that superior accuracy is achieved by modelling the ligand as partially occupied and superposed on a ligand-free `ground-state' model. Explicit incorporation of this model of the crystal, obtained from a reference data set, allows constrained occupancy refinement with minimal fear of overfitting. Better rep

SUBMITTER: Pearce NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5349438 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature