diff --git a/scripts/databases_pdb.sh b/scripts/databases_pdb.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5fafbd416b2596b852ae1b549b1c5ff7ac06e839
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+++ b/scripts/databases_pdb.sh
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+#!/bin/bash -ex
+#SBATCH -J create_index
+#SBATCH -t 08:00:00
+#SBATCH -c 64
+#SBATCH --mem=200G
+#SBATCH -o /g/arendt/npapadop/cluster/create_index.out
+#SBATCH -e /g/arendt/npapadop/cluster/create_index.err
+
+# build the indices for the sequence databases uniref30, PDB. This is later used for the
+# MSAs of the Spongilla sequences.
+
+cd /scratch/npapadop/database
+
+module load MMseqs2
+
+mmseqs databases PDB PDB tmp
+mmseqs createindex PDB tmp3 --remove-tmp-files 1 --threads 64
+
+module unload MMseqs2