AutoDock vs. C3 Reservations vs. LigPlot+ vs. Python Comparison Chart

AutoDock is a suite of automated docking tools. It is designed to predict how small molecules, such as substrates or drug candidates, bind to a receptor of known 3D structure. Over the years, it has been modified and improved to add new functionalities, and multiple engines have been developed. Current distributions of AutoDock consist of two generations of software: AutoDock 4 and AutoDock Vina. More recently, we developed AutoDock-GPU, an accelerated version of AutoDock4 that is hundreds of times faster than the original single-CPU docking code. AutoDock 4 actually consists of two main programs: autodock performs the docking of the ligand to a set of grids describing the target protein; autogrid pre-calculates these grids. In addition to using them for docking, the atomic affinity grids can be visualized. This can help, for example, to guide organic synthetic chemists design better binders.

LigPlot+ is a successor to our original LIGPLOT program for the automatic generation of 2D ligand-protein interaction diagrams. It is run from an intuitive java interface that allows on-screen editing of the plots via mouse click-and-drag operations. In addition to the new interface, the program includes several major enhancements over the old version. When two or more ligand-protein complexes are sufficiently similar, LigPlot+ can automatically display their interaction diagrams either superposed or side by side. Any conserved interactions are highlighted. The LigPlot+ suite also now includes an update of the original DIMPLOT program for plotting protein-protein or domain-domain interactions. Users can flexibly select the interface of interest and DIMPLOT will then generate a diagram showing the residue-residue interactions across the interface. To assist in interpretation, the residues in one of the interfaces can be optionally displayed in sequence order.