LIGPLOT: a program to generate schematic diagrams of protein-ligand interactions

Abstract

The LIGPLOT program automatically generates schematic 2-D representations of protein-ligand complexes from standard Protein Data Bank file input. The output is a colour, or black-and-white, PostScript file giving a simple and informative representation of the intermolecular interactions and their strengths, including hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interactions and atom accessibilities. The program is completely general for any ligand and can also be used to show other types of interaction in proteins and nucleic acids. It was designed to facilitate the rapid inspection of many enzyme complexes, but has found many other applications.