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That is perfectly clear.
What was confusing me was indeed (mostly) the PDB CRYST1 record.
I guess I will go for R32:h.
Thanks a lot,
ciao,
s

On Jul 30, 2012, at 6:36 PM, Ian Tickle wrote:

> Hi Sebastiano
> 
> How programs refer to it is irrelevant for the purposes of
> publication!  If you want to be precise and stick to the ITC
> convention on nomenclature it's "space group R32 in the setting
> R32:h", since as I explained it's only the standard symbol R32 which
> is generally shown in the main ITC table of space groups; the setting
> symbols are not shown in all cases.  However simply calling it 'R32:h'
> is also completely unambiguous and acceptable (but calling it 'R32'
> most definitely is not!).  For the PDB CRYST1 record you have
> (unfortunately) to call it 'H32'.
> 
> Hope this clears it up.
> 
> -- Ian
> 
> On 30 July 2012 17:20, Sebastiano Pasqualato
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi there,
>> at this point I'm confused, at least with respect to one thing.
>> If I have a solved a structure in spacegroup #155, with a=b and different
>> from c, and alpha=beta=90, gamma=120, this would be reported as R32 in the
>> international tables. However programs refers to it as H32.
>> What should I report in the (in)famous  "table 1" ?
>> Thanks in advance,
>> ciao,
>> s
>> 
>> On Jul 30, 2012, at 5:23 PM, Ian Tickle wrote:
>> 
>> Without wishing to re-ignite previous discussions on this topic
>> (perhaps <FLAME> ... </FLAME> tags would be in order!), I would point
>> out that this and similar confusion with other space groups has arisen
>> largely from a failure of some programmers (and users!) to fully
>> comprehend the important difference between a 'standard symbol' and a
>> 'setting symbol' for a space group, no doubt because in many cases
>> these are superficially identical, or a least very similar.  This
>> point is also made in the Computational Crystallography Newsletter
>> article on H3 and H32 that I referenced earlier.
>> 
>> The Hermann-Mauguin symbol (aka 'standard symbol') is unique to a
>> space group and crucially is designed to be independent of the setting
>> (orientation and/or origin).  It is used to identify a space group
>> without reference to the setting, and therefore its main use is to
>> provide page headings and index entries in ITC. There exist exactly
>> 230 H-M standard symbols for the 230 unique 3D space groups.  The H-M
>> standard symbol is the same for all settings of a particular space
>> group and therefore cannot be used to define the setting: for that you
>> obviously need additional information.
>> 
>> The standard symbol is thus of little or no relevance to practical
>> crystallography: for that you must use a setting symbol.  However for
>> the majority of space groups only one setting is accepted as
>> 'conventional' so in those cases the standard and setting symbols are
>> identical; it's only where there are multiple settings that problems
>> arise.
>> 
>> A simple analogy might be to say that an object is called 'building'
>> and that is also its standard symbol.  It describes the object without
>> reference to its orientation or position and so is not relevant to the
>> practical problem of defining the view of the building: for that you
>> need extra symbols.  For example you might need to specify one of the
>> setting symbols 'building (front elevation)', 'building (side
>> elevation)' or 'building (plan)'.
>> 
>> So R32 is a H-M standard symbol which corresponds to the 2 alternate
>> setting symbols R32:r and R32:h as described in the article.  Plainly
>> you can't use the H-M symbol R32 to uniquely specify the setting since
>> it is the standard symbol for both the R32:r and R32:h settings.  The
>> latter are _not_ H-M symbols: they are ITC extensions of the H-M
>> symbol.
>> 
>> For other space groups further confusion has arisen because ITC often
>> uses the exact same character string for both the standard symbol and
>> one of the corresponding alternate setting symbols.  An obvious
>> example is P21212: this is the H-M standard symbol for SG #18 but is
>> also one of the 3 ITC setting symbols for P21212, the other two being
>> P22121 and P21221.  Perhaps the intention would have been clearer if
>> the ITC setting symbols had all been made different from the standard
>> symbol, as they are in the R32 case.  For example P21212a, P21212b and
>> P21212c would have been equally valid choices for the ITC setting
>> symbols but do not express a 'preferred' setting (since there isn't
>> one).  Similarly the standard symbol for SG #5 (unique axis b) is C2,
>> and the alternate setting symbols are A2, C2 and I2, but they could
>> equally well have been (for example) C2a, C2c and C2i, which doesn't
>> express a preference for any one of the alternate settings.
>> 
>> Either way, according to the ITC rules, the choice of 'conventional'
>> setting for a space group (i.e. the recommended default choice when
>> there are no other grounds such as isomorphism with a previously
>> determined structure) is made by reference to the unit cell.  For R32
>> the conventional cell happens to be the hexagonal one (a = b != c,
>> alpha = beta = 90, gamma = 120) with symbol R32:h; for all
>> orthorhombic SGs the convention is a < b < c and the setting symbol
>> derives from that.
>> 
>> Cheers
>> 
>> -- Ian
>> 
>> On 28 July 2012 22:22, Edward A. Berry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>> Are all the software packages consistent in their (mis)use of these
>> 
>> symbols? Recently I scaled data (scalepack) as R3, imported to ccp4 as H3,
>> 
>> and had to make a link in $ODAT/symm from R32 to H32 (which it turned out to
>> 
>> be).
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Ian Tickle wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> If we're all agreed that ITC(A) is taken as the authority on all
>> 
>> matters of space group symbology (and I for one certainly agree that
>> 
>> it should be), then SG symbol H32 (SG #145:
>> 
>> http://img.chem.ucl.ac.uk/sgp/medium/145bz1.htm) has nothing to do
>> 
>> with R32 (SG #155: http://img.chem.ucl.ac.uk/sgp/medium/155az1.htm)!
>> 
>> According to the Hermann-Mauguin system of nomenclature H32 (more
>> 
>> correctly written as H3_2 where the '_' indicates a subscripted screw
>> 
>> axis) would be the hexagonal-centred (H) lattice setting of P32 (P3_2
>> 
>> in H-M).  H32 as an alternate setting symbol for R32 is a very recent
>> 
>> PDB invention which conflicts with the well-established H-M convention
>> 
>> used throughout ITC.  The ITC symbols for the rhombohedral&  hexagonal
>> 
>> 
>> axis settings of SG R32 are R32:r and R32:h respectively, i.e. obvious
>> 
>> extensions of the H-M symbols without introducing any conflict with
>> 
>> the existing convention, as the PDB symbol does.  The confusion has
>> 
>> arisen from the failure to distinguish the lattice type (the first
>> 
>> letter of the symbol) from the symbol for the basis system of the
>> 
>> setting (the final letter after the ':').
>> 
>> 
>> See http://cci.lbl.gov/~rwgk/my_papers/CCN_2011_01_H3_H32.pdf for an
>> 
>> excellent explanation of all this and of the confusion that arises
>> 
>> when programmers ignore established conventions and 're-invent the
>> 
>> wheel' (e.g. SCALEPACK apparently swaps the meaning of the PDB symbols
>> 
>> R32&  H32 and uses R32 for PDB H32 and vice-versa!).
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Cheers
>> 
>> 
>> -- Ian
>> 
>> 
>> On 27 July 2012 21:09, Bernhard Rupp<[log in to unmask]>  wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> H32 indicates the hexagonal obverse setting (as you list) for a R
>> 
>> centered trigonal cell, which is 3x larger than the primitive R32 cell
>> 
>> indexed a=b=c, al=be=ga<>  90. Standard imho is the H32 setting, for which I
>> 
>> will probably get flamed.
>> 
>> The relation between H and R cells is depicted here:
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.ruppweb.org/Garland/gallery/Ch5/pages/Biomolecular_Crystallography_Fig_5-29.htm
>> 
>> 
>> This has been discussed and is explained in the ccp4 tutorials and doc
>> 
>> afaik, where you can find more detailed info.
>> 
>> 
>> For proper format in a journal, I would suggest to adhere to the format
>> 
>> given in the ITC (International tables for Crystallography), I.e. Bravais
>> 
>> Italic, subscripted screw symbols. Note that this is not the format you put
>> 
>> it into most programs - their docs help.
>> 
>> 
>> You can also try my old space croup decoding program to see general
>> 
>> positions, operators, matrices and other useful stuff.
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.ruppweb.org/new_comp/spacegroup_decoder.htm
>> 
>> 
>> HTH, BR
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> 
>> From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
>> 
>> Theresa Hsu
>> 
>> Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 12:54 PM
>> 
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> 
>> Subject: [ccp4bb] Space group R32 and H32
>> 
>> 
>> Dear all
>> 
>> 
>> I have a confusion on the space group R32 and H32. For a cell parameter
>> 
>> of a = b not equal to c, alpha=beta, not equal to gamma, is it considered as
>> 
>> R32 or H32?
>> 
>> 
>> I tried searching the mail list archives but it does not help a beginner
>> 
>> crystallographer like me.
>> 
>> 
>> I also have another basic question. What is the correct way for writing
>> 
>> space groups? Is the Bravais lattice in italic and is there space after
>> 
>> that? Or it does not matter because both are used in literature?
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Sebastiano Pasqualato, PhD
>> Crystallography Unit
>> Department of Experimental Oncology
>> European Institute of Oncology
>> IFOM-IEO Campus
>> via Adamello, 16
>> 20139 - Milano
>> Italy
>> 
>> tel +39 02 9437 5167
>> fax +39 02 9437 5990
>> 
>> please note the change in email address!
>> [log in to unmask]
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 

-- 
Sebastiano Pasqualato, PhD
Crystallography Unit
Department of Experimental Oncology
European Institute of Oncology
IFOM-IEO Campus
via Adamello, 16
20139 - Milano
Italy

tel +39 02 9437 5167
fax +39 02 9437 5990

please note the change in email address!
[log in to unmask]