As mentioned above, the XML files provide an easy way for PDB2PQR to parse data. PDB2PQR extends the built-in SAX XML parser to allow the code to go from input file to PDB2PQR object without any intermediate steps.

The difficulty of adding a new forcefield to PDB2PQR depends on the naming scheme used in that forcefield. To start, either a flat file or XML file containing the desired forcefield's parameters should be made - see AMBER.DAT and AMBER.xml for examples. If the forcefield's naming scheme matches the canonical naming scheme, that's all that is necessary. If the naming schemes differ, however, conversions must be made. These are made in the *.names file (see CHARMM.names for example). In this file you will see sections like:

This section tells PDB2PQR that for the oxygen atom O in WAT, CHARMM uses the names OH2 and TP3M, respectively. When the XML file is read in, PDB2PQR ensures that the WAT/O pair points to TP3M/OH2 such that the appropriate parameters are returned.

But for naming schemes that greatly differ from the PDB2PQR canonical naming scheme, this could get really ugly. As a result, PDB2PQR can use regular expressions to simplify the renaming process, i.e.:

    <residue>

        <name>[NC]?...$</name>

        <atom>

            <name>H</name>

            <useatomname>HN</useatomname>

        </atom>

    </residue>

This section of code will ensure that the H atom of all canonical residue names that match the [NC]?...$ regular expression point to HN instead. This regular expression matches all three-letter residue names, residue names with an 'N' prepended (N-Termini), and residue names with a 'C' prepended (C-Termini). For twenty amino acids that is sixty residue name changes, all done by a single section. The use of regular expressions is therefore a much more powerful method of handling naming scheme differences than working on a one to one basis. For those unfamiliar with using regular expressions, the two following links are quite helpful (and Python specific):

There are a few other additional notes when using the *.names file:

The $group variable is used to denote the matching group of a regular expression, for instance:

This section replaces HIP/HID/HIE with HSP/HSD/HSE by first matching the HI([PDE])$ regular expression and then using the group that is enclosed by parantheses to fill in the name to use. For more information on grouping in Python please see the Regular Expression HOWTO's section on grouping.

Sections are cumulative - since CHARMM, for instance, has a patch-based naming scheme, one single canonical residue name can map to multiple forcefield-scheme names. Let's look at how to map an SS-bonded Cysteine (canonical name CYX) to the CHARMM naming scheme:

The CYX residue is first mapped to CHARMM's CYS, and then to CHARMM's DISU object. All atom names that are found in DISU overwrite those found in CYS - in effect, the DISU patch is applied to CYS, yielding the desired CYX. This cumulative can be repeated as necessary.