RetrotransformDB: A dataset of generic transforms for retrosynthetic analysis

Abstract

Presently, software tools for retrosynthetic analysis are widely used by organic, medicinal, and computational chemists. Rule-based systems extensively use collections of retro-reactions (transforms). While there are many public datasets with reactions in synthetic direction (usually non-generic reactions), there are no publicly-available databases with generic reactions in computer-readable format which can be used for the purposes of retrosynthetic analysis. Here we present RetroTransformDB—a dataset of transforms, compiled and coded in SMIRKS line notation by us. The collection is comprised of more than 100 records, with each one including the reaction name, SMIRKS linear notation, the functional group to be obtained, and the transform type classification. All SMIRKS transforms were tested syntactically, semantically, and from a chemical point of view in different software platforms. The overall dataset design and the retrosynthetic fitness were analyzed and curated by organic chemistry experts. The RetroTransformDB dataset may be used by open-source and commercial software packages, as well as chemoinformatics tools.