pemsley/coot/pdbe-api
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Query the PDBe (Protein Data Bank in Europe) REST API and Solr search API from within Coot to access structure metadata, validation data, revision history, search capabilities, and download coordinate files
Install
npx vskill@latest install pemsley/coot/pdbe-apiSKILL.md
PDBe API Access from Coot
Overview
The PDBe (Protein Data Bank in Europe) provides comprehensive REST and Solr-based APIs for programmatic access to structure data, validation reports, compound information, revision history, and search capabilities. Coot can access these APIs directly using the coot_get_url_as_string_py() function, which now supports both text and binary data.
Core Function
`coot.coot_get_url_as_string_py(url)` - Fetch URL content
Returns:
- Python
strfor text/JSON content (valid UTF-8) - Python
bytesfor binary content (gzipped files, images, etc.)
Main API Endpoints
Entry-based API
Base URL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/api/
Documentation: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/api/doc/
Aggregated API
Base URL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/graph-api/
Documentation: https://pdbe.org/graph-api
Search API (Solr)
Base URL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/search/pdb/select?
Documentation: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/api/doc/search.html
Common Query Patterns
1. Structure Summary and Metadata
Get basic information about a structure including deposition date, revision date, authors, and experimental method:
Key fields in response:
title- Structure titlerelease_date- Original deposition date (YYYYMMDD)revision_date- Most recent revision date (YYYYMMDD)experimental_method- List of experimental methodsentry_authors- List of authorsnumber_of_entities- Count of different entity types (protein, ligand, water, etc.)
2. Molecule/Entity Information
Get organism and molecule details:
3. Compound/Ligand Information
Get detailed information about a specific compound including formula, SMILES, InChI, and revision history:
Use case: Check if a ligand definition was recently revised, which might explain geometry changes.
4. Downloading Coordinate Files
Download and load PDB/mmCIF files directly:
Note: The wwPDB versioned archive exists but is not currently accessible via HTTPS through this API. Use the current version from RCSB or PDBe.
5. Validation Reports
Get residue-wise outliers including clashes, geometry outliers, and density fit issues:
Available validation endpoints:
/validation/residuewise_outlier_summary/entry/{pdb_id}- Residue-level outliers/validation/rama_sidechain_listing/entry/{pdb_id}- Ramachandran and rotamer outliers/validation/global_percentiles/entry/{pdb_id}- Overall quality metrics
6. Structure Status and Revision History
Check if a structure has been superseded or revised:
7. Ligand Binding Sites
Get information about ligand binding sites and interactions:
8. Assembly Information
Get biological assembly information:
Solr Search API
The Solr search API allows complex queries across the entire PDB. However, it has important limitations.
What Solr Search CAN Do (Well-Indexed Fields)
✅ Metadata searches:
- By release/deposition date:
release_year:2025 - By experimental method:
experimental_method:"X-ray diffraction" - By resolution:
resolution:[* TO 2.0]orresolution:[1.5 TO 2.5] - By organism:
organism_scientific_name:"Homo sapiens"
✅ Presence/absence queries:
- Has protein:
number_of_protein_chains:[1 TO *] - Has carbohydrate:
has_carb_polymer:Y - Has bound molecules:
has_bound_molecule:Y - Has modified residues:
has_modified_residues:Y
✅ Component searches:
- Specific ligand:
chem_comp_id:ATP - Ligand name:
ligand_name:imatinib - Molecule name:
molecule_name:*kinase*
✅ Author/citation:
- By author:
entry_authors:"Smith J" - By UniProt:
uniprot_accession:P12345
✅ Combined queries:
What Solr Search CANNOT Do
❌ Detailed connectivity: Cannot search for "THR covalently bonded to NAG" or other specific atom-level connections
❌ Geometry queries: Cannot search for "bonds longer than X" or "angles outside range Y"
❌ Spatial relationships: Cannot search for "atoms within 5Å of ligand"
❌ Sequence motifs: Cannot search for "structures with GXGXXG motif"
❌ Complex structural features: Cannot search for "beta-barrel with 8 strands"
❌ Validation specifics: Cannot search for "residues with Ramachandran outliers at position X"
The Pattern: Solr indexes metadata and simple categorical data, not structural details or relationships.
For analyses requiring connectivity or geometry (like finding O-glycosylated threonines), you must:
- Use Solr to find candidates (e.g., structures with NAG + resolution < 2.5Å)
- Download those structures
- Parse mmCIF connectivity tables locally
- Extract geometric parameters
Basic Search Syntax
Common Solr Search Fields
Identifiers & Metadata:
pdb_id- PDB entry IDmolecule_name- Molecule namemolecule_type- Entity type: use"Protein"(capital P) — NOTpolypeptide(L)orproteinmolecule_sequence- One-letter sequence string (stored but not full-text indexed — wildcard search like*C*C*returns 0 results; fetch and filter in Python instead)polymer_length- Length of the polymer entity in residues (supports range queries:[5 TO 30])number_of_polymer_residues- Total residues across all chains in the entrynumber_of_protein_chains- Number of protein chainsorganism_scientific_name- Source organismexperimental_method- Experimental method (e.g.,"X-ray diffraction")resolution- Structure resolutionligand_name- Ligand/compound namecitation_title- Publication titledeposition_date- Deposition daterevision_date- Revision date
Experimental Details:
experimental_method- Method (e.g., "X-ray diffraction", "Electron Microscopy", "Solution NMR")resolution- Structure resolution (numeric, use ranges like[1.0 TO 2.0])em_resolution- EM-specific resolutiondata_quality- Overall quality metric
This is the start of the file. Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub.
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Source
- SKILL.md in the repositoryCheckingmcp/docs/skills/pdbe-api/SKILL.md
Popularity
- Repository stars
- 160
- Repository forks
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- 7-day trend score
- 25
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