RxDock: a fast, versatile, and open-source program for docking ligands to proteins and nucleic acids

RxDock is a fast and versatile open-source docking program that can be used to dock small molecules against proteins and nucleic acids. It is designed for high-throughput virtual screening (HTVS) campaigns and binding mode prediction studies.

RxDock is mainly written in C++ and accessory scripts and programs are written in C++, Perl or Python languages.

The full RxDock software package requires less than 50 MB of hard disk space and it is compilable (at this moment, only) in all Linux computers.

Thanks to its design and implementation, it can be installed on a computation cluster and deployed on an unlimited number of CPUs, allowing HTVS campaigns to be carried out in a matter of days.

Besides its main Docking program, the RxDock software package also provides a set of tools and scripts to facilitate preparation of the input files and post-processing and analysis of results.

About

Features

Docking preparation

Define cavities using known binders or with user-supplied 3D coordinates. Allow -OH and -NH2 receptor side chains to rotate. Add explicit solvent molecules and structural waters. Supply pharmacophoric restraints as a bias to guide docking.

Pre-processing of input files

Define common ligand structure for performing tethered docking (requires Open Babel Python bindings). Sort, filter or split ligand files for facilitating parallelization. Find HTVS protocol for optimizing calculation time. Pre-calculate grids to decrease subsequent calculation times.

Post-processing and analysis of results

Summarize results in a tabular format. Sort, filter, merge or split results files. Calculate RMSD with a reference structure taking into account internal symmetries (requires Open Babel Python bindings).

Binding mode prediction

Predict how a ligand will bind to a given molecule. The ASTEX non-redundant test set for proteins and DOCK and RxDock test sets for RNA have been used for validating and comparing RxDock with other programs.

High-throughput virtual screening

Run for million of compounds in short time by exploiting the capabilities of computer calculation farms. Ease of parallelization in relatively unlimited CPUs to optimize HTVS running times. The DUD set has been used for validating RxDock and comparing its performance to other reference docking programs.

History

The RiboDock program was developed from 1998 to 2006 by the software team at RiboTargets (subsequently Vernalis (R&D) Ltd). In 2006, the software was licensed to the University of York for maintenance and distribution under the name rDock.

In 2012, Vernalis and the University of York agreed to release the program as open-source software. This version is developed with support from the University of Barcelona -- sourceforge.net/projects/rdock.

The development of rDock stalled in 2014. Since 2019, RxTx is developing a fork of rDock under the name RxDock.

License

RxDock is licensed under GNU LGPL version 3.0.

Contributor concordat

RxDock adheres both to No Code of Conduct and Code of Merit.

• Contributor Code of Conduct
• Code of Merit

References

If you are using RxDock in your research, please cite [rDock2014]. Former software reference provided for completeness is [RiboDock2004].

• [rDock2014] Ruiz-Carmona, S., Alvarez-Garcia, D., Foloppe, N., Garmendia-Doval, A. B., Juhos S., et al. (2014) rDock: A Fast, Versatile and Open Source Program for Docking Ligands to Proteins and Nucleic Acids. PLoS Comput Biol 10(4): e1003571. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003571

• [RiboDock2004] Morley, S. D. and Afshar, M. (2004) Validation of an empirical RNA-ligand scoring function for fast flexible docking using RiboDock®. J Comput Aided Mol Des, 18: 189--208. doi:10.1023/B:JCAM.0000035199.48747.1e