Title: protein data bank file
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - protein data bank file
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11484
Status: current

Definition
A text file that stores the atomic coordinates of a macromolecule, usually a protein or nucleic acid with associated ligands, solvent molecules and ions.

Note
The documentation for the file format is at https://files.wwpdb.org/pub/pdb/doc/format_descriptions/Format_v33_Letter.pdf.

Source
- PAC, 2016, 88, 239. 'Glossary of terms used in computational drug design, part II (IUPAC Recommendations 2015)' on page 252 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2012-1204)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11484/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11484/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11484/xml

Citation: Citation: 'protein data bank file' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11484
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-28T14:52:24+00:00