Database documentation

This section describes the architecture of CSDB, data formats and other technical details. For user help, please refer to Basic usage and Advanced features.

Content:

  • Database architecture
  • Topology generator
  • Annotation notes
  • Dump format
  • Carbohydrate notations
    • Database architecture

    CSDB utilizes a MySQL relational database to store data. The connection table approach is used for structures.
    Click on the core entity relationship scheme to enlarge it (PDF).

    CSDB entities

    The above figure depicts relationaships between data from scientific publications and their indices. NMR-spectroscopic and structural data derived by statistical processing, theoretical prediction, and format conversion are gathered in a separate set of tables not presented in the figure. Background of table headers stands for data category:

    The example database is explained (entities + data) in the figure (click to enlarge to A3 PDF):

    CSDB scheme

    Glycosyltransferase module is driven by a separate set of tables interlinked with CSDB and other databases:

    CSDB GT entities

    Conformation map module is driven by a separate set of tables interlinked with CSDB:

    CSDB conformation entities

    One conformation (id) of a certain model (compound_id + conditions) can have multiple minima, thus conf_minima can have multiple rows with the same conf_id but different id(s). One minimum can imply more than one inter-residue linkage, thus conf_data can have multiple rows with the same minimum_id but different connection_id(s). Every linkage has from one to four dihedrals (phi, psi, omega, theta). Filename is a hash locating an XML file from which the processed MD trajectory has been imported, and JSON files for conformation map interactive visualization.

    Topology generator

    CSDB contains four special tables for caching residue connection topologies (unlisted on the scheme). To view pre-generated topologies, click here.

    Annotation notes
    The retrospective analysis and annotation of literature data includes the following steps: To match the database scope, an article should contain at least one explicit or implicit molecular structure fitting the following criteria:

    The carbohydrate structure can be published explicitly (as a figure, scheme, IUPAC name) or implicitly (using a trivial name, free text or even only implied by authors). The presence of a structure in a publication can be expressed as: elucidation of primary structure or conformation; suggesting a structural motif; other studies, including biological activity; synthesis or modeling of a structure; assignment of structure to another taxon; referencing or reviewing a structure in regard to its biological role or other properties.

    Negative example: if a common structure is mentioned implicitly (e.g. "chitin" in the introduction of a review), but no particular data on this structure (preparation of a sample, elucidation, spectra, biological properties, cellular role, molecular weight, etc.) are reported/discussed, it is NOT a subject for annotation.

    The association with a biological source (taxon) means any of the following:

    Negative example: the structure was produced outside the organism by an enzyme from this organism, but its precursor was not reported to be present in the taxon, e.g. the article discusses a structure of a fungicidal agent glycosylated by a fungal enzyme from a certain strain in vitro => this structure from this article is NOT a subject for annotation.
    Dump format

    The CSDB dump is a backup of the database and a reference file for all the database content. It is a human-readable UTF-8 text file; content corrections and error-tracking are usually performed on this file. The dump file can contain one or more records (including a complete dump that contains all CSDB records) separated by two blank lines. Lines starting with # symbol are comments for annotators and are not processed.

    Every record is a unique combination of a molecular structure (ST* + AG fields) and a paper in which this structure is dicsussed. Each record represented by several lines, one line per field. The line starts with the field name followed by colon (:) and field content. Line breaks inside the field are not allowed. Below is the explanation of fields. Please refer to the data submission page and to the example record at the end of this page for more details on the meaning of fields. Fields that cannot be empty are in bold.

    FieldExplanation
    ID: Unique permanent CSDB record ID. Records that have some unresolved problems are marked by star (*; they are not processed until corrected). Records associated with publications that contain no information on structure of natural carbohydrates should be marked with two stars and an explanation why this record is excluded from the database (e.g. ID: 100 ** structure not found; such records are not processed at all).
    TH: 1 if the structure was elucidated or revised in the publication (even by poor methods),
    0 if the structure discussed in the publication was elucidated elsewhere (e.g. this publication is a review or biological study of a known structure).

    If a known structure was identified but no elucidation details are provided, use TH=0 If a known structure was confirmed/revised by described elucidation, use TH=1 If a structure was revised but no elucidation details are provided, and the revised structure is already known, use TH=0 If a structure is supposed or arbitrary but authors obtained the structural data and publish the structure in the paper, use TH=1 and ST2=MOTIF.
    If only a fragment was elucidated, while a bigger structure is known or supposed from elsewhere, use TH=1 and ST2=FRAGMENT for the fragment itself, and TH=0 for a bigger structure.
    If the structure was elucidated erroneously, use TH=1, ST1=proper structure, ST1ORIG=erroneous structure. In this case, please specify in NT, how the structure was revised (basing on the NMR data, revised later from [ref...], etc.)

    Example:

    Statements in the paper: A new compound 1 was extracted from fungus X, and its structure was elucidated by NMR. Moreover, known compounds 2-6 were extracted from the same fungus. Compound 2 was shown to have a certain sequence (6-mannosylated and linear glucose residues interleave one-by-one; it was previously reported only as a structural motif of 50%-6-mannosylated glucan). In compound 3, a previously unknown position of a methoxy group in the aglycon was determined. Structure of compound 4 was revised, and differs from the previously reported one by presence of a rhamnose instead of mannose in the side chain. Compound 5 was found identical to a known glycoside from plant Y. Compound 6 was earlier synthesized chemically but now it was found in fungus X. From our studies, compound 7 was identified as 3-rhamnosylquercetin (elucidated elsewhere), but not 1-rhamnosylquercetin as reported earlier. Structural motif (but not exact sequence) of compound 8 was elucidated by NMR as a shizophyllan (known class of compounds).

    Annotation: TH:1 for compounds 1-4; TH:0 for compounds 5-8.

    AU: Comma-separated list of authors. Last name goes first, then initials without dots. National characters are supported (e.g. Müller AB).
    TI: Title of publication (article, chapter, book, symposium thesis). Please do not capitalize every word. If a title was copy-pasted from PDF, check it for missing spaces and merged characters.
    JN: Journal name without abbreviations. If unsure, please use CSDB journal list to check the spelling.
    For book publications, use the following format: JN: BOOK: book name (series: series name, if known; otherwise omit these parentheses); Eds.: comma-separated editors; Publisher.
    For symposium thesis, use the following format: JN: SYMP: symposium name (symposium number : year : place); Eds.: comma-separated editors; Publisher.
    If editor/publisher is not known, type semicolons only, e.g. SYMP: Eurocarb (17th : 2013: Tel-Aviv);;
    PY: Publication year. If paper publication year differs from ePub year, use the former one.
    VL: Volume number. If the volume imprint contains a subvolume/issue, e.g. 36(5), specify the subvolume/issue in parentheses.
    For books, specify the volume number outside parentheses and the chapter number inside parentheses. The book series number should be included in the book title (JN).
    PG: Hyphen-separated start and end page numbers. If the end page is unknown, use the start page only.
    For imprints with article number instead of page number, use ID keyword, e.g. ID 35
    RL: References to bibliography: comma-separated list of resource-identifier pairs (resource identifier is before colon, reference is after colon, e.g. PMID:123456789). Allowed resources are: PMID (NCBI PubMed ID), DOI (DOI code), URL (www address), NLMID (NCBI NLM ID of book or chapter).
    EA: E-mail of the corresponding author, e.g. address@gmail.com; My Name <my_email@my_server.ru>
    AD: Semicolon-separated list of author affiliations (institution, city, country). Each affiliation should be listed only once, the order is arbitrary.
    AB: Publication abstract. Please change line breaks to blank spaces. National characters are supported. If abtract was copy-pasted from PDF, check it for missing spaces, merged characters and extra line breaks. All chemical structures should be either specified in linear form or replaced with the word /structure/.
    ST1: Chemical structure in CSDB linear encoding (see Structure encoding rules for details).
    If you used Subst for a fully defined substructure, except simplest cases, it is strongly recommended to add a SMILES code after the second equation mark, e.g. aDRibf(1-3)Subst // Subst = questin = SMILES CC1=CC(=C2C(=C1)C(=O)C3=C{3}C(=CC(=C3C2=O)OC)O)O. Please note that SMILES should describe a complete residue, including hydroxy or other group that is removed upon formation of the bond to carbohydrate moiety. Please indicate the atoms that form bonds with other residues by figure brackets and atom number ({3} in this example) before the corresponding carbons. This is needed to unambiguify authors' atom enumeration.
    (optional) ST1ORIG: Originally published erroneous chemical structure in CSDB linear encoding (the field is present only if ST1 contains the revised structure).
    In case the error is in the aglycon, specified by its SMILES code, omit aglycon name from explanation (e.g. Subst = SMILES CC{2}C(N)C for wrong struicture in ST1ORIG, but Subst = 2-butanol = CC{2}C(O)C for correct structure in ST1)
    ST2: Structure type: OLIGO (oligomeric structure), CHEM (chemical repeating unit of a polymer), BIOL (proven biological repeating unit), SBIOL (suggested biological repeating unit), MONO (oligomeric structure with a single carbohydrate entity), HOMO (repeating unit of a homopolymer), CYCLO (repeating unit of a cyclic polymer), FRAGMENT (poly- or oligomeric fragment of a bigger structure), MOTIF (supposed, idealized or arbitrary structure; exemplary structure with certain pattern of side chains, where multiple interpretations are possible; exemplary structure with explicit values of n/m/k/etc indicating the polymericity of subfragments - in this case add a comment, e.g. NT: motif of polymeric structure 29 when n=m=1, see ID #####). Biological repeating unit can be suggested basing on the same structure from the same organism in some other record (BIOL) or on general knowledge, e.g. if a repeating unit contains a single aminosugar, its biological repeat is likely to start with this aminosugar. In E. coli, presence of genes GNE or GNU indicate biological repeat start with GalNAc.
    ST3: For polymers: Polymerization degree preceded by n=, e.g. n=12-15, or molecular mass in Daltons. Ranges and relations are supported. e.g. 10000-30000 or >30000.
    For oligomers: Molecular mass with or without ion type in square brackets, e.g. 9813 [M+H]+.
    Separate multiple values by comma.
    SL: Structure location inside the publication, e.g. structure 1, HPLC fraction 2, compound 7a, fig. 3, p.456, etc. Except structure itself, please indicate tables with the NMR assignment.
    AG: Aglycon information (what is attached to the reducing end and by which position, if known), e.g. (->6') lipid A or inner core, bDGalpN C6. If the aglycon is a single residue present in the monomeric namespace (e.g. Allyl) or more than one residue is attached to the aglycon, encode it in the structure (ST1). AG field is proposed for describing aglycons if aglycon structure could not be fully determined, or when aglycon caps the reducing end of a polymeric glycan. In all other cases it is advised to encode aglycon as Subst alias, and add its SMILES code in the explanation (see example above in ST1).
    Leading parentheses indicate the attachment site in the aglycon (e.g. (->3) sapogenin F1). Greek letters, single and double quotes are allowed.
    MF: Molecular formula (for mono- and oligosaccharides only). Carbons first, then hydrogens, then alphabetically.
    NMRH: 1H NMR assignment data (see NMR data storage for details). Paste structure into NMR template generator to generate a template to fill with chemical shifts. If the spectrum was published but chemical shifts were not picked, , type present in publication.
    Proton enumeration within residues follows carbon enumeration. If a certain position does not have protons, use a hyphen (-) at corresponding position in a proton spectrum. If a carbon has non-exchangeable protons but proton chemical shift could not be observed, use a question mark (?). Chemical shifts of two protons attached to the same carbon are separated by hyphen in the ascending order. Protons attached to heteroatoms should be recorded only if this heteroatom has a number in a carbon sequence, e.g. two parts of a carbon skeleton are connected via NH group. Exchangeable protons (-OH, -COOH, -NH2, etc.) are always omitted.
    The spectrum should correspond to the exact structure specified in ST1. Please avoid situations like a spectrum deposited for an oligomer, while structure is a polymer with the same repeating unit (because capping groups are different), or a spectrum deposited for a fragment, while structure contains other moieties attached, etc. If the structure contains non-stoichiometric moieties (residues denoted by %), provide spectra for the structure variant with these moieties attached.
    NMRC: 13C NMR assignment data (see NMR data storage for details). Paste structure into NMR template generator to generate a template to fill with chemical shifts. If the spectrum is published but chemical shifts were not picked, type present in publication. For carbon enumeration, refer to Monomer namespace. If you provide a spectrum for a residue alias (Subst, etc.), ensure to explain the atom enumeration in NT (according to IUPAC; or according to the Fig. # in the paper; web-reference on Wikipedia etc.)
    For unresolved chemical shifts, use a question mark (?) at corresponding position.
    The spectrum should correspond to the exact structure specified in ST1. Please avoid situations like a spectrum deposited for an oligomer, while structure is a polymer with the same repeating unit (because capping groups are different), or a spectrum deposited for a fragment, while structure contains other moieties attached, etc. If the structure contains non-stoichiometric moieties (residues denoted by %), provide spectra for the structure variant with these moieties attached.
    NMRT: Temperature used to carry out NMR experiments, in Kelvins. If carbon and proton spectra were recorded at different temperature, separate values with comma and specify nuclei in parentheses, e.g. 313(H), 298(C).
    NMRS: Solvent used to carry out NMR experiments (chemical formula or abbreviation). Separate mixed solvents with slash (e.g. CD3OD / D2O), starting from those with greater part. If ratios are known, write them before the solvents: 90%D2O / 10%H2O / 25mM NaCl or vol 67%CDCl3 / vol 33%DMSO-d6, etc. If a reference standard is not TMS, specify it as another solvent: D2O / DSS. pH value can be appended after semicolon: D2O; pD 7.5. To view the canonical names of most used solvents, click on Coverage link at the NMR simulation page.
    SO: Semicolon-separated list of biological sources of the structure, without taxon abbreviations. The first word in every source is interpreted as genus, the second is for species, all the other words (third and subsequent ones) are combined subspecies, serogroup, and/or strain.

    If a taxon was renamed or an organism was reclassified after the data were published, specify the newer name in curly brackets after the organism, e.g. Enterobacter sakazakii O6 {NEW: Cronobacter sakazakii O6}. Older synonyms are specified as {OLD: ....}. The published taxon name should be always outside curly brackets; any number of OLD and/or NEW terms can be combined inside curly brackets. Please note, that a renamed taxon has almost always the same rank as the previous name (don't rename strains to species etc.).

    If species name is unknown, while strain is known, specify sp. for the species name. If only genus or genus/species information is available, incomplete taxonomic annotations are allowed. If only a rank higher than genus is known (e.g. family), parenthesize it. For hybrid organisms, combine two taxa with a star (A * B or e.g. A-new * B {OLD: A-old * B}).

    In the third part of taxon, use the following order and abbreviations for space-separated subdivisions: subspecies (ssp.), serovar (sv.), pathovar (pv.), biovar (bv.), serogroup (value without prefix, e.g. O1), strain (value or space separated values without prefix), mutant (in parentheses, e.g. (ΔgalE mutant)). The strain can be collection identifier (collection name and strain ID, e.g. ATCC 123, preferrable) or recognized or authors' designation (e.g. ABC123 or Nagasaki).

    Single taxon examples:
    (bacteria) - only kingdom is known
    Proteus - only genus is known
    Proteus penneri - only genus and species are known
    Proteus penneri O22 - genus, species, serogroup
    Acinetobacter haemolyticus ATCC 19606 - genus, species, strain from ATCC collection
    Escherichia coli O86:B7 ATCC 12701 - genus, species, serogroup, strain
    Citrobacter frendii PCM1555 (ΔgalE mutant) - genus, species, mutant strain
    Salmonella enterica ssp. enterica sv. Typhimurium TV119 - genus, species, subspecies, serovar, strain
    Haemophilus parasuis sv. 5 Nagasaki - genus, species, serovar, named strain or other subdivision
    Pseudomonas sp. WAK-1 - species is uknown, genus and strain are known

    KD: Before slash (/): Taxonomic domain (bacteria,protista,archaea,fungi,algae,plant,animal,mammal,human).
    After slash (/): Taxonomic phylum.
    If there are multiple organisms of different domains or phyla, separate values with comma (in this case number of values should correspond to the number of organisms, including remappings in curly brackets).
    For hybrid organisms (A*B), use phylum for ancestor B (one on the right).
    OTI: Organ, tissue, secret, or other biomaterial from which the structure was extracted. For microorganisms, organella or cell part can be specified. Organs of host organisms are also allowed. If life state is specified (embryo, culture broth, promastigote etc.) specify it in this field preceeded by Life stage: keyword. Use only singular nouns, separate multiple entries with comma, and do not use commas and parentheses within terms.
    DSS: Disease of the host organism associated with the structure or its biological source, or disease of a patient from which the structure was extracted. Please separate multiple diseases with semicolon and provide attributes in square brackets when possible. Comma-separated list of attributes can include: ICD11: ICD-11 code, Life stage: life stage of the host organism, Sex: male or female. If no disease is known but an infectious agent has an ICD-11 code, specify a disease as infection due to <taxon> [ICD11: X<...>]. Please do not combine multiple diseases in one title (like "colitis and diarrhea"). Examples: cholera [ICD11: 1A00, ICD11: XN7N1]; neonatal aspergillosis [ICD11: KA63.1, ICD11: XN0WC, Life stage: neonatal]; infection due to Proteus penneri [ICD11: XN7PE, Sex: male]. Always use canonical disease names, as listed in CSDB disease list.
    HO: Systematic name (genus and species) of the host organism in which the microorganism (specified in SO) was found. If multiple, separate hosts with a semicolon (;).
    NC: (Trivial) name of the compound. Greek letters, apostrophs and quotes are supported. Separate multiple names by semicolon.
    CC: Comma-separated list of classes and roles of the compound, e.g. O-antigen, EPS, phosphoglycolipid, GPI-anchor etc. For spelling and word order of popular classes, please refer to Class abundancy table
    MT: Comma-separated list of methods that were used to elucidate or process the structure. For spelling and word order of popular methods, please refer to Method abundancy table and pick those methods appearing more frequently.
    BA: Biological activity of the compound (free text), including binding information and serological data. If unsure, please indicate whether these data are present in the paper, e.g. serological data.
    EI: Comma-separated list of enzymes that release or process the structure, including those from other organisms. Please also include enzymes used to process the structure during (chemo-)enzymatic synthesis, if reported by authors. Do NOT include enzymes missing from a strain mutant on the corresponding gene, if absence of this enzyme leads to the described (truncated) structure.
    BG: Availability of biosynthetic and genetic data in the publication (biochemical data, genetic data)
    SY: Availability of data on laboratory or industrial synthesis of the compound (chemical, chemical fragmentary, enzymatic, enzymatic in vivo, chemoenzymatic, chemical and enzymatic, synthesis (unknown), fragmentary (unknown), modelling, biosynthesis; leave blank if no synthesis is discussed in the publication).
    KW: Comma-separated list of keywords from the publication. Greek letters, apostrophs and quotes are supported.
    NT: Any comments that do not fit other fields (e.g. errors found in the article, reference to revisions, structural elements unencoded in ST1, etc.).
    3D: Availability of 3D-structure and conformation data (conformation data, computer modeling, dynamics etc.)
    RR: Comma-separated list of related CSDB record IDs:
    - other structures compared with this structure in the publication,
    - fragments of this structure,
    - similar structures having only minor differences with this structure,
    - structures of the same type from the same organism,
    - bigger structures, which this structure is a fragment of,
    - other subunits of the same molecule,
    - etc.
    If multiple structures are published in a review, cross-link them only if they are produced by the same organism or are closely interrelated. If a referenced record is in another domain, precede it with letter B, P or F (depending on the dump it is contained in: bacterial, plant or fungal). If a reference should not be imported, but you still wish to keep it (e.g. referenced record is temporarily excluded from the dump by adding a star), add * afterwards. Example: 1234,B5678,100500*,12345
    DB: Cross-references to other structural databases: comma-separated list of resource-identifier pairs (resource identifier is before colon, reference is after colon, e.g. CA:123456789). Widespread resource identifiers are CCSD (Carbbank ID),GlycomeDB (GlycomeDB ID), CA (Chemical Abstracts access number), CA-RN (CA substance registry number), US-PT (USA patent number), ProtDB (Protein Databank ID), GenDB (GenBank ID), GTC (Glytoucan ID).
    TAX: Comma-separated list of cross-references to the NCBI Taxonomy database, according to the order of organisms in the SO field. The number of values should be equal to the number of taxa in SO, excluding taxon remappings in curly brackets. Please specify NCBI TaxID of the organism (strain). If no NCBI TaxID exists for the organism, use NCBI TaxID of the species (or genus if species is missing from the NCBI Taxonomy database) in parentheses. If sp. is used for species and NCBI TaxID of the exact organism is unknown, use NCBI TaxID of the genus. For hybrid organisms, combine two TaxIDs with star (100*101). If a genus is missing from the NCBI Taxonomy database, please use a TaxID of the kingdom and negate it (e.g. -2 for bacteria). A value of -1 means the structure is natural but organism is unknown.
    U1: Last name of the record submitter (yours).
    U2: Record submission date (DD.MM.YYYY). Can be rounded to the first day of month.
    U3: For bacterial papers: RefManID of this paper in the local database of the Carbohydrate Chemistry Lab, Zelinsky Institute. Add PDF if a full-text PDF is present.
    U4: For bacterial papers: Comma-separated list of RefManIDs of related papers in the local database of the Carbohydrate Chemistry Lab, Zelinsky Institute.
    U5: If the record was imported from another database (e.g. Carbbank), U5 lists errors found in the original record.
    U6: Filename (with extension) of the publication full text in CSDB local cache. Please name files using PMID (12345678.pdf) or id_####.pdf (CSDB ID if no PMID is available)

     
    Example dump of completely filled hypothetical record: 

    #CSDB dump file - example

ID: 50000
TH: 1
AU: Toukach FV, Akvinski F
TI: Antigen-induced suppression of sexual identification of worras infected by Deliriums trementii
JN: Pseudoscience Letters
PY: 1943
VL: 489(12)
PG: 9723-9725
RL: PMID:123456789, DOI:10.1000/12345.6789, URL: http://toukach.ru/rus/hs_main.htm
EA: never@cnt.ru
AD: N.D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia
AB: The structure of the O-specific polysaccharide of Deliriumus trementii O66 has been elucidated using 2D-NMR approach, including... The studies of biological activity revealed the effect of this glycopolymer on sexual behaviour of Worra-worras bla-bla-bla...
ST1: -4)[Subst(?-3)]a?Fucp(1-P-4)[10%Ac(1-5)aXNeup(2-6),]bDGlcpN(1- // Subst = phosphorylated mannan
ST1ORIG: -4)[Subst(?-3)]a?Fucp(1-P-4)[aXNeup(2-6)]bDGlcpN(1- // Subst = mannan (erroneous structure)
ST2: SBIOL
ST3: n=45
SL: HPLC fraction 2
AG: core oligosaccharide
MF: C25 H42 N2 O21 P
NMRH: #4,0,3_Subst // #4,0_a?Fucp   5.01 3.80 4.30 4.25 4.70 1.21// #4_P // #6,5_10%Ac   - 2.02// #6_aXNeup   - 4.97 2.32-2.38 3.60 3.40 4.40 3.60 3.62 3.50-3.55// #2_Ac   - 2.03// #3_Me   1.33// #0_bDGlcpN   4.87 3.33 3.85 4.00 4.15 3.80-3.90// 
NMRC: #4,0,3_Subst // #4,0_a?Fucp   96.5 68.6 71.0 81.9 67.8 15.9// #4_P // #6,5_10%Ac   175.0 23.0// #6_aXNeup   174.1 107.2 41.0 69.0 52.9 73.9 69.2 72.6 63.6// #2_Ac   175.0 23.2// #3_Me   16.3// #0_bDGlcpN   103.0 55.6 78.9 70.9 75.4 67.1// 
NMRT: 308
NMRS: 90%D2O / 10%H2O / 0.01M CD3COOD; pD 5.5
SO: Deliriumus trementii O66 PCM2004, Deliriumus sp. 12345  {NEW: Deliriumus mirabilis 12345, OLD: Worrodeliriumus sp. 12345}
KD: bacteria / Proteobacteria
OTI: brain
DSS: sexual misidentification, paranoya
HO: Worra worra
NC: khrenobiose,okhrenobiose
CC: O-antigen
MT: FAB-MS, MALDI-TOF, methylation, 1D-NMR, 2D-NMR, 13C-NMR, HF solvolysis, partial hydrolysis, Smith degradation
BA: causes suppression of Worra-worra's natural instincts, binds to monoclonal antibody 1B1, serological data available
EI: CoQ-III
BG: biochemical and genetic data
SY: chemical fragmentary
KW: worra,Deliriumus trementii,structure,polysaccharide
NT: structure was revised (see ID 50001)
3D: conformation data, computer modelling, dynamics
RR: 50001
DB: CCSD:123456,CA-RN:300-4183,ProtDB:PIR1 - ABC456,SpecDB:2-12-85-0-6
TAX: 6661313,(6661314)
U1: Toukach
U2: 31.12.2004
U3: 55555
U4: 66666
U5: incorrect structure
U6: id50000.pdf

    Structure encoding in carbohydrate notations

    Carbohydrate notations are formal languages used to describe or visualize the glycan structure. CSDB native notation is called CSDB Linear and provides a human-readable one-line structure encoding. It is used to formalize search queries, helps error tracking and simplifies data posting and input/output. The comparison of CSDB Linear to other carbohydrate and general chemical notations is shown in the table ( red = worse,  green = better). Notations listed in italics are no more supported in modern carbohydrate databases.

    LanguageProjectApproachCompleteUnambiguousControllableParseableFuzzyness support
    IUPACpublications
    IUPAC extendedSweet-DB, Carbbankpseudo-
    graphics
    MOLchemoinformaticsC H N O
    SMILESchemical editors and databasesC H N O
    InChichemical editors and databasesC H N O
    GLYDE 1.2XMLURL
    CabosMLJCGGDBXML?
    GlycoCTGlycomeDB, EurocarbDB, GlyTouCan, ...
    Glyde IIGlycoWkb, EurocarbDB, GlyTouCan, ...
    GlycoCT extension and partonomy
    Linear CodeCFGURL
    LinUCSGlycosciences.deURL
    GLYCAMGLYCAMURL
    KCFKEGG Glycan, RINGS
    WURCSJCGGDB, ChEBI, PDBURL
    UOXFOxford Glycobiology Institute
    CFG (v.2), SNFG (v.3)publications, databases
    CSDB LinearCSDBURL

    The main advantages of CSDB Linear are built-in support of multiple non-carbohydrate constituents and co-existence of unambiguiety and human-readability. The disadvantage is a limited support for nested repeating units, and no support for undetermined side chain attachment sites. A detailed language description is available in the dedicated help section: Structure encoding.

    CSDB has built-in translators (parsers) from CSDB Linear and GlycoCT and exporters of structures to CSDB Linear, GlycoCT (condensed or XML), Glyde II, LinUCS, WURCS, GLYCAM, SMILES (with deambiguation), structural formula (via SMILES, image), SweetDB (based on IUPAC extended), MOL file (via SMILES, with 3D optimization), PDB file (with residue assignment), SNFG (image). Structures are retrieved from database or parsed from a notation to an array. Click here to view its description.

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