Second Generation Search Engine

    This document describes the main features, configuration possibilities and functional features of the second generation search engine implemented in the following products.

    Contents

    New features

    Relevance ordering

    The hits of substructure search are given back ordered by the relevance (similarity) between the hit structure and the query structure.

    Hit as you draw

    The most relevant hit structures are given back almost simultaneously with the modification of the query structure.

    Configuration

    Technical parameters

    The Xmx size, cache sizes, and further parameters need to be set before running the servers. Here is a helping page provided for the calculation of the approximate configuration parameters.

    JChem Engines cache and memory calculator

    Business rules

    The business rules relating the interpretation mode of the chemical structures are defined in molecule types. These rules cover the followings:

    • standardizer actions to be executed on the structures
    • tautomer search mode
    • assumption of stereo interpretation mode

    Molecule type

    The molecule types must be set before initializing the new servers.

    Where to define molecule type(s)
    JChem Choral <choral_home>/data/tapes/<type_name.type> files
    JChem PostgreSQl Cartridge /etc/chemaxon/types/<type_name.type> files
    JChem Microservices DB jws-config/common-config/application.properties file or
    jws-db/config/application.properties file
    Application mode of molecule type(s)
    JChem Choral as index type and as search type
    JChem PostgreSQl Cartridge as column type
    JChem Microservices DB as table property
    Standardizer rules

    The standardizer actions can be defined in two forms as

    • standardizer action string
    • standardizer file
    Tautomer mode

    For the detailed description of

    • all tautomers which we call generic tautomer,
    • normal canonical tautomers,
    • normal all tautomers which we call normal generic tautomer,

    see the Tautomerization and tautomer models of Chemaxon documentation.

    There are four tautomer search modes provided

    • OFF Tautomers are not taken into account during the search

    • GENERIC The generic tautomer - representing all theoretically possible tautomers - of the target is matched with the query structure itself. This method is applied in substructure search, full fragment search, duplicate, and superstructure search.

    • CANONIC_GENERIC_HYBRID (deprecated in 23.12), NORMAL_CANONIC_GENERIC_HYBRID (from version 23.12)

      It is a hybrid tautomer search mode. The query structure is compared to the generic tautomer of target at substructure and similarity search, while normal canonical tautomers are compared at duplicate search. In full fragment search from version 20.12 to 20.14 the generic tautomer of the target is used, while from version 20.15 normal canonical tautomers are compared.

    • NORMAL_CANONIC_NORMAL_GENERIC_HYBRID (from version 23.12)

      It is a hybrid tautomer search mode. The query structure is compared to the normal generic tautomer of target at substructure and similarity search, while normal canonical tautomers are compared at duplicate and full fragment search.

    Query Target Tautomer mode
    OFF
    Tautomer mode
    GENERIC
    Tautomer mode
    CANONIC_GENERIC_HYBRID
    Stereo assumption

    By default, all stereo molecules - independently of the presence or absence of the chiral flag - are regarded as molecules with absolute stereo configuration.

    If you want exclusively molecules with chiral to be handled as absolute (and molecules without chiral flag to be handled as relative) you must set stereoAssumption = RELATIVE in the molecule type definition.

    Query Target Stereo assumption
    ABSOLUTE
    Stereo assumption
    RELATIVE

    Functional features

    Search options

    Ignore tetrahedral stereo / charge / isotope in search - until version 23.17.0

    By default, the specified tetrahedral stereo configuration, charge and isotope value is required to match in the hit structures.

    Here we describe how the ignoretetrahedralstereo option is handled in search. The other two options ignorecharge and ignoreisotope are handled the same way, and are also recommended to apply in SUBSTRUCTURE and FULLFRAGMENT search, but not in DUPLICATE search.

    In order to ignore the tetrahedral stereo configuration specified in the query structures during the search, the ignoretetrahedralstereo option can be used.

    The ignoretetrahedralstereo search option is a query transformation parameter. If ignoretetrahedralstereo is set, the tetrahedral stereo bonds of the query molecule are transformed to single bonds in the background of the search, but the tetrahedral stereo bonds of the target molecules stay intact.

    The usage of ignoretetrahedralstereo search option is recommended in SUBSTRUCTURE and FULLFRAGMENT search, but is not recommended in DUPLICATE search.

    Duplicate search with fully ignored tetrahedral stereo properties - like in JChem Base or JChem Oracle Cartridge - cannot be executed by the products using this second generation search engine. When searching for enantiomers, diastereomers FULLFRAGMENT search with ignoretetrahedralstereo option is recommended with taking into account the other less strict features of FULLFRAGMENT search compared to DUPLICATE search (the hit structures can contain more fragments, isotopes, charged atoms, ...)

    Query Target without ignoretetrahedralstereo
    [Default]
    with ignoretetrahedralstereo
    images/download/attachments/1806734/no.png
    images/download/attachments/1806734/no.png in substructure and fullfragment search
    in duplicate search
    option name
    JChem Choral ignoretetrahedralstereo
    ignorecharge
    ignoreisotope
    JChem PostgreSQl Cartridge ignoretetrahedralstereo
    ignorecharge
    ignoreisotope
    JChem Microservices DB stereoSearchIgnoreTetrahedralStereo
    ignoreCharge
    ignoreIsotope

    Ignore tetrahedral stereo / charge / isotope in search - from version 24.1.0

    By default, the specified tetrahedral stereo configuration, charge and isotope value is required to match in the hit structures.

    From version 24.1.0 ignoretetrahedralstereo, ignorecharge and ignoreisotope options can also applied - beside SUBSTRUCTURE and FULLFRAGMENT search - in DUPLICATE search as well. The specified tetrahedral stereo, charge and isotope properties will be ignored during the search not only on the query structures - as until version 23.17.0 - but on the target structures as well.

    In order to ignore the tetrahedral stereo configuration specified in the query structures and in the target structures, the ignoretetrahedralstereo option can be used.

    Query Target without ignoretetrahedralstereo
    [Default]
    with ignoretetrahedralstereo
    images/download/attachments/1806734/no.png
    images/download/attachments/1806734/no.png

    Stereo search on marked double bond only

    By default, the double bond stereo configuration of all the double bonds of the hit structures must be the same as that of the query structures. See first examples below.

    The dbsmarkedonly search option makes possible to check the E/Z configuration of only those double bonds that are marked.

    Query Target without dbsmarkedonly
    [Default]
    with dbsmarkedonly
    option name
    JChem Choral dbsmarkedonly
    JChem PostgreSQl Cartridge dbsmarkedonly
    JChem Microservices DB stereoSearchOnMarkedDoubleBondOnly

    Axial stereo information

    In the products based on the second generation search engine, the axial stereo information is taken into account in duplicate search, while in the products JChem Base and JChem Oracle Cartridge - using the first generation search engine - the axial stereo information is not taken into account, by default.

    Duplicate search results

    Query Target Second generation search engine First generation search engine [Default] First generation search engine with ignoreAxialStereo=false

    Homology groups in query structures

    The handling of homology groups in query structures has been changed at version 24.3.0. At versions prior to 24.3.0, the homology groups are not translated, that is - for example - an ethyl group in the target is not matched to an alkyl homology group in the query. From version 24.3.0 they are translated resulting relevant hits in substructure and fullfragment searches.

    Example

    Query Target Before version 24.3.0 From version 24.3.0

    How to loose the strictness of duplicate search?

    In products JChem Oracle Cartridge (JOC) and JChem Base - using the first generation search engine - it is possible to modify the strictness of duplicate search by different search options for ignoring the check of different features, like tetrahedral stereo, double bond stereo, charge, isotope, ...

    JOC example

    SELECT * FROM test where jc_compare(mol, 'C\C=C\C', 't:d ignoreDoubleBondStereo:y') = 1;
    Target Query JOC/JCB
    duplicate search with ignoreDoubleBondStereo
    JPC/Choral
    duplicate search with dbsmarkedonly
    N/A
    N/A

    The second generation search engine does not provide any option for duplicate search for loosing its strictness. The recommended solution is applying full fragment search in place of duplicate search together with restricting the fragment count of the hits to the fragment count of the query structure. In full fragment search there are further options provided: ignoreTetrahedralStereo, dbsmarkedonly, ignoreCharge, ignoreIsotope

    JPC example

    SELECT * FROM test WHERE query_transform('C\C=C\C', 'dbsmarkedonly') |<=| mol AND chemterm('fragmentCount', mol)::smallint = 1;

    Choral example

    SELECT * FROM test WHERE sample_Search (mol,'C\C=C\C','FULLFRAGMENT', 'DBSMARKEDONLY')=1 AND chemterm('fragmentCount', mol)=1;

    We have to mention that this solution is not exactly the same as duplicate search with ignoreDoubleBondStereo option in JOC, but mimics its behavior.

    Duplicate search checks all features of the two structures and matches them. With the ignoreDoubleBondStereo option turned on, the double bond stereo feature is ignored. On the other hand we mimic this behavior with full fragment search which can be considered as a restricted substructure search with restriction to heavy atom count. (The matching fragment heavy atom count should be equal with the query heavy atom count.) But since it is a substructure search, the matching of atom and bond properties are not exact. E.g. a non charged query atom can match to a charged target atom. So in this case you may find charged atoms among the targets like in the following example:

    Target Query JOC/JCB
    duplicate search with ignoreDoubleBondStereo
    JPC/Choral
    full fragment search with dbsmarkedonly

    Hit highlight

    The highlight function compares a query structure with a target structure and highlights the bonds and atoms of the target structure matching with the query structure. The alignment mode and the color applied for highlighting can be set. Three alignment modes are available:

    • off

      The hit structure's position on the screen is the same as that of the target structure.

    • rotate

      The hit structure is rotated till its part corresponding to the query gets the same position as the query structure has.

    • partial clean

      The hit structure's position on the screen is partially aligned to the query structure.

    Query Target Alignment
    off
    Alignment
    rotate
    Alignment
    partial clean
    option name
    JChem Choral function highlight
    operator hit_highlight
    JChem PostgreSQl Cartridge function highlight
    JChem Microservices DB /rest-v1/db/highlight