FYI --

The :h suffix for R3 is described in the IUCr symmetry cif (intl tables vol G 
chapter 4.7) under _space_group.reference_setting where it states "For the
space groups where more than one setting is given in International
Tables, the following choices have been made. For monoclinic
space groups: unique axis b and cell choice 1. For space
groups with two origins: origin choice 2 (origin at inversion centre,
indicated by adding :2 to the Hermann-Mauguin symbol in
the enumeration list). For rhombohedral space groups: hexagonal
axes (indicated by adding :h to the Hermann-Mauguin symbol
in the enumeration list)."

http://it.iucr.org/Ga/ch4o7v0001/ch4o7.pdf 
http://www.iucr.org/resources/cif/dictionaries/cif_sym 

The H3 / H32 designations are PDB conventions/standards. In the PDB
format description it states that "For a rhombohedral space group in 
the hexagonal setting, the lattice type symbol used is H."  
>From an archive of the PDB documentation at the University of Washington,
there is list of changes by PDB version that suggests that the PDB
introduced the H designation with the release of PDB format v2.0 
(sometime around March 1997) see
http://www.bmsc.washington.edu/CrystaLinks/man/pdb/guide2.2_frame.html 
http://www.bmsc.washington.edu/CrystaLinks/man/pdb/part_6.html 
The RCSB's archive of the 2.2 format gives a file not found error.
http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/docs/format/pdbguide2.2/guide2.2_frame.html 
 

Regards,
Mitch


-----Original Message------
From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Nat Echols
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 8:06 AM
To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Sftools and Phaser compatibility issues - continued

On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 5:31 AM, <herman.schreu...@sanofi-aventis.com> wrote:
The other question is: why does phaser write 'R 3 :H' in the mtz? When
the problem with the P21221 space group first popped up last year, Randy
told me that space group numbers like 2018 are non-standard, and that
space group 18 with the name P21221 was the way to go. This is fair
enough, but 'R 3 :H' is neither PDB nor ccp4 standard and I did not find
it in the international tables. Is it maybe a phenix standard?

No, it pre-dates Phenix - it's the "extended Hermann Mauguin symbol", whatever 
that means:

http://www.ccp4.ac.uk/html/symmetry.html

I don't know why it's used preferentially in Phenix, but in theory it's 
supported by CCP4 programs, except those which are still using the older 
symmetry information.  syminfo.lib has the correct information (space group 
number 146), symop.lib does not.  As previously noted the last time this 
discussion came up (December, if memory serves), Coot also uses this notation:

http://www.biop.ox.ac.uk/coot/doc/coot/Reading-coordinates.html

-Nat

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