The goal of LSD is to help the user propose one or more molecular structures from data that is mainly extracted from 2D NMR spectra. Recording HMQC (or HSQC), HMBC and COSY spectra is the pre-requisite for LSD use. LSD has no knowledge of chemical shifts. There is no way to introduce this kind of data, for any nucleus type. LSD uses the chemical shift and coupling information provided by the user that are necessary to establish carbon hydridization state or to impose a particular neighborhood to a given atom.
NMR data coding for LSD may initially seem awkward to beginners. The following paragraphs are intended to help them. A useful documentation source may be found in the examples in the Data folder. A data file for LSD is a text file that contains commands, each being followed by one or more parameters. The most useful commands will be first introduced, but a thorough command set description is given in the Data file structure paragraph. A text-type user interface may seem old-fashioned, but it is sometimes easier to modify a text than to navigate though menus and sub-menus whose function is not always totally explicit.
The first step in the elucidation of an unknown molecular structure is to find its elemental formula and to determine the status of all non-hydrogen atoms. The status consists of an index, a chemical symbol, a hybridization state (sp2 or sp3) and a number of attached hydrogen atoms. Defining the status of all atoms is a strong constraint for the user. The status of heteroatoms is not always easy to define, mainly when more than one of their type is present. Even for carbon atoms, the chemical shift value is not sufficient to non-ambiguously deduce the hydridization state. More than a single data set must then be written and tested. More flexibility to status definition will be given in the near future, but for the moment the user has to cope with the present capabilities of LSD.
Atom indexing may be arbitrary.
A recommended procedure is the indexing of carbons from 1 in decreasing
order of their 13C chemical shift value.
Heteroatoms recieve the following numbers as indexes.
Carbon indexes are then reported in the 1D projections around the
2D HMQC and HMBC spectra.
The command that defines an atom status is MULT
.
Uppercase letters need to be uppercase.
MULT
is followed by the atom index, 2 or 3 for
the hydridization state (sp2 or sp3) and
the multiplicity (number of bound hydrogen atoms).
The command MULT 1 C 2 0
says that atom 1 is a
quaternary (0
) sp2 (2
) carbon (C
).
The data file contains as many MULT
lines as non-hydrogen
atoms in the molecule.
The following step is the indexing of hydrogen atoms.
Again, the indexes may be given arbitrarily, but it is handy to
give the same index to the proton and to the carbon atom that is attached to it.
The HMQC spectrum matches carbon and proton indexation schemes.
Two inequivalent hydrogen atoms within a methylene group get the same index.
The hydrogen indexes are then copied in the projections around the 2D
COSY and HMBC spectra.
A correlation in a 2D spectrum is characterized by the type of spectrum,
the index of the atom in dimension 1 (carbon index in HMQC and HMBC spectra),
and the index of the atom in dimension 2 (always a hydrogen atom index).
The command HMQC 4 4
indicates that carbon 4 and hydrogen 4
are bound together.
Commands HMBC
and COSY
are coded in the same way.
Any easily deduced bond must be given to LSD through a BOND
command.
It takes the indexes of the bound atoms as parameters.
If carbon 1 is that of a keto group and if there is an sp2 oxygen 22,
the command BOND 1 22
establishes the bond between atoms 1 and 22.
Unless specified, the order of the commands within a data file has no importance.
The text that follows the EXIT
command is ignored.
Apart from purely NMR derived commands, other commands are needed for
execution control.
One should prefer to group them at the beginning of the data file.
MULT
,
HMQC
, COSY
, HMBC
,
and BOND
commands
constitute the basic skeleton of LSD data files.
A less trivial part in the writing of LSD data files is the definition
of atom properties and of the associated lists.
An atom property (PROP
command) indicates for an atom
or for all atoms in a list the exact number of neighbors (1 or more) that must
be members of another atom list.
The number 0 means "all".
A given atom may have only one single property statement.
For example, the chemical shift of carbon atoms indexed 8, 9 and 10 is about
15 ppm.
The hydrogen atoms indexed 8, 9 and 10 are those of methyl groups
appearing at about 1 ppm as singlets.
Carbons 8, 9 and 10 are most probably bound only to quaternary carbons.
You need to build two lists in order to code this constraint with LSD.
The first list contains the atoms 8, 9 and 10 while the second one contains
all the quaternary carbons.
An atom list is described by its index and its content.
The content is either explicitely defined (giving the index
of all atoms within the list) or using atom status.
It is also possible to combine lists according to the operations defined
in the set theory.
Back to the example, LIST L1 8 9 10
defines list 1 and puts atoms
8, 9 and 10 in it.
QUAT L2
defines list 2 and puts all quaternary carbons in it.
Once L1 and L2 are defined, the constraint on atoms 8, 9 and 10
is coded by the PROP L1 0 L2
command.
It could have also been possible to write PROP L1 1 L2
, because
a methyl group carbon always has a single neighbor.
List and property definition commands are treated in the order
they are written in the data file.
Changing the order can change the meaning.
A common temptation for beginners is spectra over-interpretation, meaning that non-significant information is introduced. Inconsistent or wrong data leads LSD to fail, producing a message that indicates which is the deepest analysis level reached (the much hated "max stack level: " message). Introducing nJ COSY or HMBC correlations with n greater than 3 also leads LSD to fail. In order to avoid this unpleasant situation, the weakest COSY and HMBC correlations should be first written as comments, by putting a semicolon at the beginning of the corresponding commands. If the number of found solutions is too big, it's time to remove semicolons to impose more property or correlation constraints to the problem.
New with version 3.1.0: Elimination of invalid HMBC correlations
Two reasons may be invoked if the analysis of a HMBC correlation does not lead
to a solution. Either the present state of the molecule is not compatible
with the analyzed correlation (case 1), or the correlation itself is invalid (case 2).
The latter case arises either by accident
(spectral artefact or typing error, for axample) or
because the correlation arises from a coupling through more than three bonds.
In case 1, the resolution mecanism will be able to correct the structure state
to produce a solution if the entire data set is correct.
In case 2, no correction can lead to a solution. The invalid correlation
can now be eliminated to check whether it is
responsable for the resolution failure.
The ELIM
command provides the maximum number of correlations it
is possible to eliminate, so that at least one solution is produced.
The ELIM
command also provides the
maximum allowed number of bonds between
the atoms in all eliminated correlations.
The latter constraint may be deactivated
for the detection of accidentally invalid correlations.
This brief overview of LSD commands will allow users to be more confident with the writing of data files. However, reading of Data file structure is a mandatory step in the learning of the LSD command language.
A data file named "pinene" is provided in the Data folder.
Running LSD on it is simple achieved using:
myprompt$ cp Data/pinene .
myprompt$ lsd pinene
where
myprompt$
is the prompt given by the computer.
LSD writes that 1 solution is found.
A file pinene.sol is created, containing atom connectivity information.
Any data file named abc or abc.xyz produces a solution file named abc.sol
or abc.xyz.sol.
A 2D coordinate file pinene.coo can be then generated:
myprompt$ outlsd 6 < pinene.sol > pinene.coo
The outlsd program creates 2D coordinates from connectivities.
The result is viewed using a Postscript® previewer.
Postscript drawings are first produced with:
myprompt$ genpos < pinene.coo > pinene.ps
and displayed on screen using:
myprompt$ xpsview pinene.ps
if xpsview is the currently available Postscript display program.
The command:
myprompt$ solve pinene
does the whole job in one shot: structure resolution, creation and display of the
structure drawings.
It is generally not a good idea to proceed this way with a new data set.
However, this can be done once the data set
runs from the command line without any error
(see From data to structures).
The coordinates generated by outlsd sometime produce drawings that
are difficult to read.
A simple program named m_edit was written in order to interactively
improve the quality of the structure drawings.
You need to have Tcl/Tk and the wish
command
installed in order to run M_EDIT
(version 8.0 or later).
The command
myprompt$ m_edit
launches m_edit.
The File menu allows to read and save files, and to exit from
the program.
The View menu is used to navigate forward and backward
through a set of structures within a file.
The supported file formats are .coo (the LSD-specific format)
and .mol.
Using m_edit is very intuitive: atoms are moved using the left mouse button.
There is no multiple atom selection mechanism available yet, sorry.
Molecules are selected by default, as shown by their title, written in black. The Select menu allow to unselect(title in red)/reselect(title in black) molecules. The status of the current molecule can be changed by clicking on the title. Selected molecules can be kept (and the unselected one removed) using the Keep item of the Select menu.
Molecule drawings can be horizontally and vertically flipped
using the Arrange menu.
A buffer (Buffer menu) was added, so that a modified molecule set (item Save To)
can be retrieved (item Load From).
A data file is made of commands and comments.
The number of commands is limited to 300.
A comment is everything between a ";" and the end of the line.
A command is made of a command mnemonic,
generally followed by 1 to 4 parameters.
All parts of a command are separated by spaces.
Commands are case-sensitive.
From version 3.2.0 included, the EXIT
command may be omitted.
If there, everything beyond it is ignored.
All command mnemonics are made of 4 alphanumeric characters.
Some of them end with space characters (^
),
such as CH^^
.
Mnemonics are followed by parameters, separated by blanks.
The parameter types are described using
the following symbols:
C N O X Y Z
only.A
in sub-atom definition, see the
Substructural information paragraph.
S1
.
The parameters of a command are successively referenced by P1, P2, P3 and P4.
The EXIT
command is the only one without any parameter.
MULT
I A I I: defines atom status.
C N O X Y Z
. X
, Y
and Z
is defined using the VALE
command.
MULT 1 C 2 0
.
Atom 1 is a quaternary (0
) sp2 (2
)
carbon (C
).
VALE
A I R: sets valence, if not already set.
VALE X 1 19.0
. This defines X as a fluorine atom.
BOND
I I: bond
HMQC
(or HSQC
) I I: heteronuclear correlation through 1 bond
HSQC 4 4
. Carbon 4 and hydrogen 4 are bound together.
COSY
I I: three bond COSY correlation
HMBC
V I: heteronuclear correlation through 2 or 3 bonds
HMBC (4 5) 8
. Carbon 4 or 5 correlates with hydrogen atom 8. LIST
Ln S: defines a list of atoms
LIST L1 4 6 14
: The L1 list contains the atoms 4, 6 and 14.
PROP
B I Ln: environment of atoms
PROP L1 0 L2
. Each atom in L1 has all its neighbors in L2.
EXIT
: end of data file. (may be omitted)
The commands that are described here help to define the lists of atoms
required by the PROP command.
They are interpreted in the order that they are written.
They are sorted according to their number of arguments:
CARB
: carbon atoms.
HETE
: non-carbon atoms.
SP3
: atoms with only single bonds (SP3^
, with a trailing space).
SP2
: atoms with exactly one double bond.
FULL
: the full atom list.
QUAT
: carbon atoms bound to 0 hydrogen atom.
CH
: carbon atoms bound to 1 hydrogen atom
(CH^^
, with 2 trailing spaces).
CH2
: carbon atoms bound to 2 hydrogen atoms.
CH3
: carbon atoms bound to 3 hydrogen atoms.
CARB L5
. L5 is the list of all carbon atoms of the molecule.
GREQ
: atoms whose reference is greater than or egal to P2.
LEEQ
: atoms whose reference is smaller than or egal to P2.
GRTH
: atoms whose reference is strictly greater than P2.
LETH
: atoms whose reference is strictly smaller than P2.
GREQ L1 10
.
L1 is the list of all atom references from 10, 10 included.
UNIO
: P3 is the union of P1 and P2.
INTE
: P3 is the intersection of P1 and P2.
DIFF
: P3 contains the atoms in P1 not belonging to P2.
UNIO L1 10 L2
. L2 contains the atoms in L1 and 10.
ENTR
I: lists atoms state before problem solving.
HIST
I: lists the resolution path of the solutions
DISP
I: output format
VERB
I: verbosity
PART
I: output of uncomplete solutions
STEP
I: single step operation
VERB 2
.
The user is prompted for the action to be taken.
WORK
I: search solutions
MLEV
I: stop analysis at step number P1
DUPL
I: elimination of duplicate solutions
SUBS
T: substructure validation
ELIM
I I: elimination of invalid HMBC correlations
ELIM 3 5
. 3 correlations, at most, can be eliminated.
Each eliminated correlation is mediated through a
4J coupling (mandatory lower limited) or a 5J
coupling (proposed upper limit).
FILT
I: substructure filtering mode selection
VALE
, MULT
, BOND
and sub-structure related commands to search for the presence of the latter
in the structure.
Typical call of LSD in this context is "lsd < file > &>/dev/null".
The returned value is :
CNTD
I: elimination of non-connected solutions
MAXS
I: limits the number of produced solutions
MAXT
I: limits the resolution time
Solutions found by LSD after correlation analysis and uncomplete atom pairing
can be selected according to a substructure constraint.
The substructure constraint is provided by substructure
definitions and by the way they are combined.
A substructure is either native (defined in the problem input file,
as it was before version 3.2.0), or externally defined.
A substructure is a set of sub-atoms (SSTR
commands) that
are connected by sub-bonds (LINK
commands) and
eventually pre-assigned (ASGN
commands).
SSTR
Sn A V V: sub-atom status
2
(sp2) or 3
(sp3)
or (2 3)
(both).
SSTR S1 C (2 3) (0 1 2)
. Atom 1 of the substructure is a carbon,
either sp2 or sp3, with possibly 0, 1 or 2 hydrogen atoms. LINK
Sn Sn : bond within the substructure.
LINK S1 S2
. Sub-atoms 1 and 2 are chemically bound. ASGN
Sn I : assignment of a sub-atom.
ASGN S3 5
. Sub-atom 3 is identified as being atom 5.
An external substructure is referred to by a fragment number and the path to the file that contains its definition. The latter is coded exactly in the same way as it is for a native substructure.
DEFF
Fn C : define fragment.
DEFF F3 "Filters/ring3"
.
Fragment F3 is a generic 3-membered ring.
Results of substructure searches are combined together to determine the validity of the current structure:
FEXP
C : fragment (logical) expression.
FEXP "F1 and not F2"
.
The DEFF
and FEXP
commands implement
in lsd the functionnality of solution filtering.
In the absence of a FEXP
command, the native
substructure is taken into account, if it exists.
If a FEXP
command is present, the native substructure
is accessed to via F0
as if a DEFF F0 "..."
existed.
If no native substructure is defined, F0
is the
empty substructure, the one that always matches a structure.
If the parameter of SUBS
is 0,
no substructure search at all is performed.
If it is -1, the result of the evaluation of the logical expression
that is provided by the FEXP
command is inverted.
In order to use outlsd, LSD must not be run with DISP 0
.
The outlsd program reads from and
writes to standard devices.
It takes an integer n comprised between 1 and 7 as argument.
myprompt$ outlsd 7 < pinene.sol > pinene.mol
Depending on n, the result contains
Option 2 requires some unavailable proprietary software (ARGOS).
The option 6 of outlsd produces an output that starts with the magic word DRAW, in a format suitable for its treatment by the genpos program. genpos reads and writes from standard devices and generates PostScript instructions.
myprompt$ genpos < pinene.coo > pinene.ps
The resulting file can be opened by Postscript previewers or be sent to Postscript printers.
Copyright(C)2000 CNRS-UMR 6229-Jean-Marc Nuzillard